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Syria Rebels Kill Woman Kurd Militia Leader
[An Nahar] Syrian rebels have killed a Kurdish woman militia leader in the northern city of Aleppo...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , highlighting growing tensions between anti-regime fighters and the Kurds, a monitoring group said Friday. "Shaha Ali Abdu, also known as Nujeen Dirik, was killed early on Friday. She headed a Kurdish popular defense unit that is part of the Democratic Union Party (PYD)," Syria's branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "She was killed a week after she was captured by rebels," the Britannia-based watchdog added. The PYD opposes the regime of  Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad Lord of the Baath... but has taken a neutral position in ongoing fighting in embattled Aleppo, the country's commercial hub. Clashes between the rebels and Kurdish militia in Aleppo reportedly left 30 dead last week, sparking fears of a new front in the already fractured country. According to the Observatory, 42-year-old Dirik was captured when she went to hand over to the rebels the bodies of opposition fighters killed in the fighting. Dirik headed a militia unit charged with protecting the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsud districts of Aleppo, said Rujhad Khalil, an Aleppo journalist who specializes in Kurdish affairs. Kurdish fighters were "on a mission to deliver the bodies of opposition fighters, as well as rebels taken hostage, after festivities between Kurdish militia and anti-regime jihad boys" when she was captured, Khalil said. Posted by: Fred 2012-11-03 |
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