Syrian Kurds press hundreds of young men into army

Police in Syria’s beleaguered self-ruled Kurdish areas have rounded up hundreds of young men to press them into military service recently made compulsory, activists and Kurdish officials say. In majority Kurdish areas east of Kobani, Kurdish police forces known as Asayish began Saturday rounding up scores of people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, handing them over to defense authorities who are holding them in schools in preparation for training.

This has a direct link to what is happening in Kobani.

Mustafa Osso, member of the National Kurdish Council

Mustafa Osso, a senior member of the National Kurdish Council, said police set up checkpoints and raided homes, adding that they had so far detained some 700 men under the age of 30. More than 550 people have been killed since the group began its offensive on the Kurdish town in mid-September, and the fighting has forced more than 200,000 people to flee into Turkey. The extremists have now seized a third of Kobani, closing in on positions held by the main Kurdish militia – the People’s Protection Units, or YPG.

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