Local Kurdish fighters in Syria have gained more ground in the northeastern part of the Arab country a day after they announced an interim autonomous government.
On Wednesday, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) said that its fighters had pushed back al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in a southern part of the largely Kurdish-populated province of Hasakah and seized several villages in the area.
"About 3,000 of those Salafists have been killed. At the beginning they were strong, but now they aren't so strong," Reuters quoted Salih Muslim, the leader of the PYD, as saying on the same day.
The fresh military gains came a day after PYD announced the formation of an interim autonomous government in the northeast of the Middle Eastern country.

PYD said the decision was made after holding a meeting with other local Kurdish groups.

"The meeting was held two days ago in the town of Qamishli between all the local groups, which discussed the project of a transitional civil administration that was put forward by the PYD earlier," PYD said in a statement.

The interim administration is formed by the PYD and some other smaller groupings, but the Kurdish National Council (KNC), which includes a broad spectrum of parties, has not joined the transitional authority.

"I think the PYD is moving in the wrong direction by individually announcing the local administration," said Nuri Brimo, a member of the KNC.

Kurdish groups had announced plans to create the interim government in July.

Most of the Kurdish regions of northern Syria have been the scene of clashes with the militants for the past months. Since the end of July, al-Qaeda-linked militants have kidnapped hundreds of Kurds.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and a total of 7.8 million of others displaced due to the violence.

By Press TV

 

The Iran Project is not responsible for the content of quoted articles.