CAIRO: Kurdish forces fighting Isil jihadists in north-east Syria have been accused of "ethnic cleansing" of Sunni Arabs by a coalition of other rebel groups.
The Syrian Kurdish force, the YPG, moved in on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant positions north of the jihadists' de facto capital, Raqqa, capturing the key border post of Tal Abyad yesterday (Monday).
Photographs showed Kurdish and Free Syrian Army flags replacing the black flag of Isil over the crossing.
Thousands of refugees have crossed into Turkey, with some claiming they were fleeing the YPG as much as the fighting and US-led bombing campaign in support of the offensive.
Fifteen rebel groups fighting Isil on a different front issued a statement claiming that "criminal acts" were taking place under the cover of US-led air strikes.
The groups included the two most important non-al-Qaeda groups fighting both the Assad regime and Isil, the ultra-conservative Ahrar al-Sham and the Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam.
Kurdish forces rejected the allegations, saying they had only asked civilians to evacuate potential battle zones to avoid casualties. But they have also issued lists of suspected collaborators with Isil, causing some to flee as they advance.
The statement is a reflection of the difficult relations between Western-backed forces in Syria. Many anti-Assad groups are Islamist and dominated by Sunni Arabs. The Kurds are also Sunni, but their political leadership is aggressively secular and nationalist. In addition, the rebels are allied to Ankara, which sees the Kurds as a direct threat because of their close ties to the PKK movement seeking Kurdish autonomy inside Turkey.
Hassan Hassan, a Syrian analyst and associate fellow at Chatham House, said the claims were playing into Isil's hands. "Isil has positioned itself as the arch-enemy of the Kurds, and we mustn't downplay the levels of sympathy they command among some Sunni Arab residents," he said.
