Fresh clashes erupt between Kurds and Syrian Islamists along Turkey border

 Kurds trying to assert their autonomy along the Turkish border with Syria have found themselves pitted against Islamists trying to cement their control of rebel zones over the past week, provoking clashes in the already volatile region.

 Clashes between Islamist rebel forces and Kurdish fighters spread to a second Syrian province on July 20, activists said, as factional tensions rose in the north of the country.

 People’s Defense Units (YPG), the militant wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra Front have been engaged in a fight for almost a week in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn, near the Turkish border town of Ceylanpınar.

 The new round of fighting broke out in Tel Abyad, a border town near Turkey in the rebel-held Raqqa province. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes began after Kurdish fighters in the area discovered fighters from an al Qaeda-linked rebel group trying to rig one of their bases with explosives.