Amnesty worldwide says the U.S.-backed Kurdish administration in northern Syria has deliberately displaced thousands of mainly Arab citizens and demolished homes.
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Kurdish official Idriss Nassan said the newly declared Democratic Forces of Syria was meant to expel Islamic State from its de facto capital of al-Raqqa in north-eastern Syria.
The main force in the alliance is the YPG, which with United States backing has driven the jihadists from wide areas of northern Syria over the past year.
“The sensitive stage our country Syria is going through and rapid developments on the military and political front… require that there be a united national military force for all Syrians, joining Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs and others groups”, said the statement, which was sent to Reuters by a YPG spokesman. The Russians are supporting the Syrian president in his quest to remain in power.
It also includes smaller Arab groups, most of which have previously fought alongside the YPG, who called themselves the Syrian Arab Coalition.
Russian Federation started airstrikes in Syria on September 30 and says it is targeting Islamic State and other extremist groups at the request of its ally al-Assad.
But a Saudi source said the defence minister, a son of the Saudi king and one of the chief architects of its regional policy, had told Putin that Russia’s intervention would escalate the war and inspire militants from around the world to go there to fight.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a United States official told AFP the drop included 50 tonnes of ammunition.
European foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, issued a statement calling on Moscow to halt its bombing of Assad’s moderate enemies immediately. They had a strategy whereby they would train rebel groups to carry out the fighting against the Islamic State.
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Syrian government forces and their allies from the Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah, backed by Iranian military officers, have launched a massive ground offensive in coordination with the Russian air support. Meanwhile in north-western Syria, Russian jets reportedly intensified their attacks on rebel positions on the Sahl al-Ghab plain, as government forces battled to regain control of the strategic area.
