Syrian Kurds and rebels battle over northern town

Syrian rebels and Kurdish militiamen were battling on Saturday for control of a north-eastern Syrian town in a dramatic illustration of the deep fissures within Syria’s armed opposition, the Los Angeles Times reports.

On Saturday a Kurdish umbrella group, the Kurdish National Council, called on the rebel leadership to exert influence with its fighters to cease their attack on Ras Ayn, along Syria’s remote north-eastern border with Turkey.

The Kurdish group demanded that the opposition leadership “put pressure on these armed groups to stop this criminal war, which is detrimental to the principles and objectives of the Syrian revolution.”