KURDISH forces fighting Isil jihadists in north-east Syria have been accused of “ethnic cleansing” of Sunni Arabs by a coalition of other rebel groups.
The Syrian Kurdish force, the YPG, moved in on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant positions north of the jihadists’ de facto capital, Raqqa, capturing the key border post of Tal Abyad yesterday.
Photographs showed Kurdish and Free Syrian Army flags replacing the black flag of Isil over the crossing.
Thousands of refugees
have
crossed into Turkey, with some claiming they were fleeing the YPG as much as the fighting and US-led bombing campaign in support of the offensive.
Fifteen rebel groups fighting Isil on a different front issued a statement claiming that “criminal acts” were taking place under the cover of US-led air strikes.
The groups included the two most important non-al-Qaeda groups fighting both the Assad regime and Isil, the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham and the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam.
Kurdish forces rejected the allegations, saying they had only asked civilians to evacuate potential battle zones to avoid casualties. But they have also issued lists of suspected collaborators with Isil, causing some to flee as they advance.
The statement is a reflection of the difficult relations between Western-backed forces in Syria. Many anti-Assad groups are Islamist and dominated by Sunni Arabs.
The Kurds are also Sunni, but their political leadership is aggressively secular and nationalist. In addition, the rebels are allied to Ankara, which sees the Kurds as a direct threat because of their close ties to the PKK movement seeking Kurdish autonomy inside Turkey.
The two sides are supposed to have made peace with each other, after clashing at previous points in the war.
However, Sunni Arab residents of hundreds of north-eastern villages and towns captured from Isil in a surge in the last two months have complained of violence and threats.
Some claim their houses have been burned or looted to prevent them returning.
“Entire families were leaving, women, children, elders. These good people have nothing to do with the battle,” said 24year-old Mahmoud, who left Tel Abyad for Turkey on Sunday as Kurdish forces approached.
Another local resident, Ahmed Abu Khalil, 28, said the surrounding villages had “emptied of Sunnis”. Mr Khalil left his home on the northeastern Mount Abdelaziz last month along with 16 family members.
The Kurds are carrying out similar policies to Shia militias in neighbouring Iraq, who are also preventing Sunnis from returning to their homes for fear they will harbour militants from Isil, a Sunni supremacist organisation.
“One of our village leaders asked the Kurds why we had to leave our land - they told him that we are incubators for Isil,” said Mr Khalil.
Hassan Hassan, a Syrian analyst and associate fellow at Chatham House, said the claims were playing into Isil’s hands. “Isil has positioned itself as the archenemy of the Kurds, and we mustn’t downplay the levels of sympathy they command among some Sunni Arab residents,” he said.
The rebel statement also reflects anger at seeing the West, which refused to intervene militarily in the war against the Assad regime, actively help the Kurds.
The YPG’s battle for Tal Abyad involves direct co-ordination with US-led air strikes, as did that for Kobane at the end of last year.