PYD terror group committing war crimes in Syria: Report

ANKARA

The terrorist PKK’s Syrian affiliate PYD has been committing war crimes in the areas it captured in Syria by forcing people to migrate, said a report issued by the Turkey-based Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) on Tuesday.

According to the report, the PYD terrorist group has been supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime in an attempt to benefit from the Syrian civil war that started in 2011.

Drawing attention to the oil-rich northeastern Syrian areas mostly populated by Kurds, the report said the Assad regime saw the Kurdish population as a threat.

"The PYD, unlike other Kurdish groups in northern Syria, led a pro-Assad policy and started supporting Muhaberat, the Syrian secret intelligence service and pro-Assad Shabiha forces. The regime-affiliated forces then left captured areas to the PYD and its armed wing the YPG," said the report.

Describing the PYD as "an armed non-state actor having controlled areas in northern Syria", the report said the PYD terrorist group was trying to be "the only authority" in the region without allowing other regional communities "a right to live".

The report also said the PYD was benefitting from Daesh’s presence in Syria to present itself as "a useful actor" in U.S. counter-terrorism operations.