Syria Kurds accuse Turkey over mutilated body of female fighter
Syria’s Kurds have accused rebels allied to Turkey of mutilating then filming the body of a Kurdish female fighter.
Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have, since January 20, been on an offensive against the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, whose Kurdish fighters Ankara views as terrorists.
A Kurdish official on Friday identified the young woman as Barin Kobani, who took part in a US-backed campaign to drive ISIL from the northern town of Kobane.
The Kurds blamed the “terrorist allies of the enemy Turkish state” for mutilating the body of Kobani – a member of the all-female Kurdish Women’s Protection Units.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said it received the video from a Syrian rebel fighting with Turkish forces in the Afrin offensive.
The rebel said the footage was taken on Tuesday after rebels found the woman’s body in the village of Qurna near the Turkish border in the north of the enclave.
In the footage, a dozen men, some armed, gather around the body of a woman.
The Kurdish community reacted with outrage, and social media users shared online a portrait of Kobani smiling next to another shot of her body.
“Barin did not surrender, she fought to the death,” said Amad Kandal, an official with the Women’s Protection Units, vowing to avenge her comrade’s murder. “This kind of behaviour will only serve to reinforce our determination to resist until victory.”
YPG male and female fighters have taken part in the battle by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to expel ISIL from large parts of Syria.
SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said the video of the body was reason to continue fighting against Turkey and its allies.
“Imagine the savagery of these invaders with the bodies of our daughters. How would they behave if they took control of our neighbourhoods?” he wrote on Facebook. “All this hatred and barbarity leaves us with a single option,” he said.
Afrin resident Hussein Cheikho, 65, said he was “deeply pained” when he saw pictures of Kobani’s body but said her death would not be in vain.
“The death of a young man or a young woman will not weaken us. Out strength will be bolstered every day,” he said.
In a statement, the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, condemned the “criminal acts” and called for “the opening of an immediate investigation” to punish those responsible.