Over the weekend, Syria's Arab and Kurdish rebels had their most serious confrontation since the uprising started 19 months ago.
About 16 people were killed in skirmishes between Free Syrian Army fighters and Kurdish militias in Aleppo's Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of Ashrafiyyah. In a video recorded on Saturday, hundreds of Kurdish demonstrators were shown chanting for freedom and the unity of Syrians - and at the same time, they protested against the presence of the FSA in their neighbourhood.
FSA fighters claimed that residents had asked them to retake the area; Kurdish residents, however, say FSA fighters fired on protesters, which sparked the broader fighting.
The rift between Arab and Kurdish groups has steadily widened for months. In September, Kurdish militias announced that they had seized control of Kurdish-majority areas of the country. Adnan Arour, a Saudi-based Salafi cleric who commands respect among some Sunni rebel groups, has since threatened that Kurds will suffer the consequences if they continue to occupy those areas.
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