The PKK terrorist organization’s Syrian wing, the YPG, which is firmly backed by the United States, has killed a civilian in Syria’s Raqqa province, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said Monday.
It said that the victim was trying to flee the terrorist organization during a raid on his home in al-Tabaqa city on Sunday.
The SNHR urged the international community that "the perpetrators must be held accountable."
Local people living in areas held by the YPG have long suffered from its atrocities, as the terrorist organization has a notorious record of human rights abuses, ranging from kidnappings, recruitment of child soldiers, torture, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in Syria. The YPG has forced young people from areas under its control to join its forces within the so-called "compulsory conscription in the duty of self-defense."
The U.S. has primarily partnered with the YPG in northern Syria in the fight against the Daesh terrorist group. Turkey strongly opposes the YPG's presence in northern Syria, which has been a major sticking point in strained Ankara-Washington relations. The U.S. has provided military training and thousands of truckloads of weaponry to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns.
Turkey has aimed to prevent the YPG from establishing a de facto autonomous region in northern Syria, which would border Turkey and connect the so-called northwestern "Afrin canton" to the "Kobani" and "Jazira cantons" in the northeast. Ankara describes this as a "terror corridor" posing a grave security threat to its national security, underlining its possible impact on the PKK’s activity around Turkish borders.
