More than a dozen Syrian rebel and militant groups on Monday accused the country’s main Kurdish militia of committing “ethnic cleansing” against Arabs and Turkmen in northern Syria, a charge strongly denied by the Kurds.
The accusation, which was not backed by evidence of ethnic or sectarian killings, came as Kurdish fighters reached the outskirts of a strategic Islamic State-held town on the Turkish border.
Thousands of refugees, most of them Sunni Muslim Arabs, have fled to Turkey in the past two weeks as the main Kurdish fighting force known as the YPG has pushed to dislodge IS militants from Tal Abyad, aiming to sever a key supply line for the extremists’ nearby de facto capital.
Tal Abyad, which lies on the Turkish border, is a mixed town with a population that includes Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds.
The Kurdish advance, coming under the cover of intense US-led coalition airstrikes in the area, has aggravated sectarian and ethnic tensions in the region.
“YPG forces ... Have implemented a new sectarian and ethnic cleansing campaign against Sunni Arabs and Turkmen under the cover of coalition airstrikes which have contributed bombardment, terrorizing civilians and forcing them to flee their villages,” the statement issued by rebel and militant groups said.