Kurdish-Islamist fighting spreads to Syrian oil fields

Clashes in Ras al-Ain between Kurdish militias, who broadly support an autonomous Kurdish region, and Islamist fighters of the Nusra Front broke out on Tuesday after Nusra fighters attacked a Kurdish patrol and captured a gunman, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The main fight turned to be fight of interests more than a fight for power, ''the Oilfields and the high income come from it is what behind the story,'' analyst told Zaman Alwasl.

Sources said that Jabhat al-Nusrah was taking 1 million dollars for its protection to oilfields while the Kurdish PYD used to get 300,000 $, they were friends in money matters. and now money made them enemies.

 The Observatory, a pro-opposition monitoring group, said fighting had now spread deeper into the largely Kurdish province of Hassakeh and battles were raging around the Rumeilan oil field, about 200 km (125 miles) east of Ras al-Ain, according to Reuters.

The field had mostly been shut down, opposition activists said, but a few of its pipelines may still be supplying refineries in the government-held cities of Homs and Baniyas.

Since March 2011, when the uprising against Assad began, Syria's overall oil production has fallen by nearly 60 percent to 153,000 barrels per day last October, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates.

The Observatory said at least 29 people had been killed since fighting between Islamists and Kurds erupted on Tuesday.

Kurdish units have seized an oil field area called Suwaidiya 20 and there are clashes in Suwaidiya oil region 3, according to the Observatory.

It said the Nusra Front and others al Qaeda-linked fighters were shelling Ras al-Ain from nearby positions

"Part of the reason for the spread is just anger at the Kurdish consolidation of control in Ras al-Ain, it's like revenge and punishment," said one activist who works with the rebels and who asked not to be named.

"But I also believe there this is part of a growing struggle for control of oil and gas in the region and the rebels are using this as an opportunity."

Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish PYD, said the Kurds would fight back to maintain the autonomous zone they had set up in the area.

"We fought hard to drive out the repressive regime and its army and we liberated the area from oppression. We will not allow either regime control or these al Qaeda-linked groups.

"What is pushing them to fight us is their antagonism against our autonomous rule in Kurdish areas. I believe their other goal is Rumeilan because it is an important oil resource."

The fighting indicated the collapse of a deal, negotiated by prominent Syrian opposition leader Michel Kilo, under which both sides in the area had cooperated peacefully for months.