The U.S.-backed YPG, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, abducted another child from the northeastern Deir el-Zour district, a spokesperson for a Kurdish party said Thursday.
Redor al-Ahmed of the Independent Kurdish Rabita told Anadolu Agency (AA) that a 13-year-old from the Garanij village, identified only by the initials H.A.H., fell victim to PKK/YPG abduction.
Ahmed lamented the terror group's tactic of separating abducted children from their families and taking them to camps for arms training, in violation of international law.
Since the start of the year, the terrorist PKK/YPG has reportedly abducted more than 30 children across Syria's Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir el-Zour and Hasakah provinces, aiming to enlist them into its armed ranks.
The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union – is responsible for over 40,000 civilian and security personnel deaths in Türkiye during an almost four-decadelong campaign of terror.
After losing significant territory and countless terrorists, the group ceded to its stronghold in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq near the Turkish border while its Syrian branch took advantage of a power vacuum created by the Syrian civil war since 2011 and invaded several resource-rich provinces with the help of the U.S.
Washington calls the YPG its ally under the pretext of driving out Daesh, which is a source of strain with its NATO ally Ankara, who says it’s "senseless" to use one terrorist group to fight another.
The YPG terrorists in the past nine years forced many locals to migrate, bringing their militants to change the regional demographic, seizing regional oil wells – Syria’s largest – to smuggle oil and generate revenue for its activities.
The terrorists have been forcibly recruiting the children of local tribal communities, consisting of mainly Kurds in northern regions.
The U.N.'s 2022 Children in Annual Armed Conflicts report said that over 1,200 children had been abducted and coerced into fighting by the PKK and its Syrian affiliates, the SDF and YPG.
There were over 2,438 grave violations against 2,407 children in Syria. As many as 1,696 children in Syria were recruited and used mostly by PKK/YPG and other armed groups and non-state actors.
International law prohibits non-state armed groups from recruiting anyone under 18, and enlisting children under 15 is considered a war crime.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed grave concern over the exploitation of children by the PKK/YPG, urging an end to their recruitment and the release of all children held in their armed ranks. The use of minors as combatants is a violation of international law.
Though the PKK/YPG initially signed a pledge with Geneva Call – a Swiss humanitarian organization that works to "protect civilians in armed conflict" – to stop the use of child soldiers in 2014, its use of child soldiers has only increased since then.
It has recently abducted two members of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS) in Hassakeh and Raqqa after local backlash to its plans to conduct so-called elections in northern Syria.
The ENKS was the first to boycott the elections, with its secretary-general, Muhammad Ismail, arguing that they viewed the elections as "illegitimate."
Soon, the boycott grew, accompanied by protests in Syria. The United States also warned against the elections, saying the conditions were "not feasible." The terrorists have since postponed the elections from June to August, but Türkiye wants them canceled altogether.
Ankara considers the move a first step to establishing a "PKK-run state" in Syria’s north, immediately across the border, as well as a threat to the territorial integrity of Syria.
Türkiye, which has troops inside northern Syria backing the Assad regime’s opposition, has pursued diplomatic talks to prevent the elections and has emphasized that it would endanger border security and regional peace.