Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Al Qaida, frustrated by setbacks in northern Syria, has resumed the abduction of Kurds.

The opposition said Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was kidnapping scores of Kurds in the battle to capture Kurdish enclaves near the Syrian border with Turkey. So far, more than 50 Kurds were being held captive.

“In the past three days, ISIL has kidnapped at least 51 Kurds in the towns of Minbej and Jarablus,” the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In a statement on Dec. 5, Syrian Observatory said the captives included women and children. The British-based opposition group said ISIL was also seizing Kurdish businesses in Minbej, located in the Aleppo province.

The abductions came in wake of the defeat of ISIL and the Nusra Front for the Defense of the Levant in the Kurdish enclave in November 2013. Opposition sources said a leading Kurdish militia had been quietly supported by the regime of President Bashar Assad.

This marked the second ISIL abduction campaign against the Kurds in the Aleppo province in 2013. In July, some 200 Kurdish civilians were seized from their homes in Tal Aran and Tal Hassel, most of them still in captivity.

ISIL, armed with rockets, was also attacking Kurdish neighborhoods in
the city of Aleppo, itself under siege by the Syrian Army and its Hizbullah
ally. The Kurds have refused to allow ISIL to take over their neighborhoods
and adopt Al Qaida doctrine.

The sources said ISIL has been recruiting reinforcements from
neighboring Lebanon and Turkey. On Dec. 5, at least 14 Islamist recruits who
arrived from Lebanon were killed by Assad forces in the Syrian region of
Qalamoun.

  Al Qaida militia kidnaps 51 kurds, Aleppo province, Bashar Assad, Frustrated Al Qaida in Syria kidnaps 51 Kurds, including women and children, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Tal Aran, Tal Hassel