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For full article text, please visit: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/syrias-civil-war-comes-to-the-kurds-4850/ Syria’s Civil War Comes to the Kurds Events on the ground in northern Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan suggest that the Syrian conflict is about to become a lot more complex, as it seems a new combatant might be entering the fray: the Kurds. Local authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan received a shock earlier this week when the normal flow of refugees from northern Syria suddenly spiked to 10,000 people crossing in a single day. Words like “unprecedented” are now being used to describe this surge of mostly Kurdish people escaping from Syria, and NGO and local government workers in Iraqi Kurdistan are struggling to cope with the numbers. Yet even more remarkable than the scale of this refugee influx is the fact that no one seems to know for sure what is behind it. Recent events in northeastern Syria do allow for an educated guess though.  There have been several reports of Islamist attacks on Kurdish towns and militias in the area. During one such attack this week, 17 people were killed in the strategic border town of Ras al-Ain. Other reports, such as a Russia Today article from August 9, detail a more comprehensive terror campaign by Islamists in the Kurdish-majority areas of northeastern Syria, one where targeted rapes, kidnappings, and murders are becoming commonplace. The article provides an individual’s account of an attack on a Kurdish town by brigades from the Free Syria Army, the al-Nusra Front, and perhaps most interestingly – the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. For full article text, please visit: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/syrias-civil-war-comes-to-the-kurds-4850/

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