Syria’s Kurds tells Turkey not to intervene militarily

BEIRUT – The Associated Press

CİHAN photo

Syria’s main Kurdish party warned Turkey July 1 that any military intervention would threaten international peace and said the country’s main Kurdish militia is ready to face any “aggression.”

Meanwhile, a Syrian rebel group released a video showing 18 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants being shot in the backs of their heads.

The statement by the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, comes as Turkish media is abuzz with talk of a long-debated military intervention to push ISIL back from the Turkish border - a move that would also outflank any Kurdish attempt to create a state along Turkey’s southern frontier.

Kurdish fighters backed by U.S.-led airstrikes have been on the offensive against the ISIL group in northern Syria for months, and now control a long stretch along the Syria-Turkey border.      

Two weeks ago, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which is dominated by the PYD, captured the border town of Tal Abyad, denying the ISIL group a crucial nearby border crossing used to bring in supplies and foreign fighters.

On July 1, the Syrian rebel Islam Army faction released a video showing the shooting deaths of 18 ISIL militants whom they had been holding. The ISIL fighters came from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other countries.

The Islam Army video came a week after ISIL released a video showing the beheading of 12 Islam Army members who had been captured by the extremists. The group warned its other rivals to repent or face the same fate.

Islam Army has fought deadly battles against the ISIL group over the past year mostly in the suburbs of the capital Damascus.