ARBIL, Iraq, 15 March 2004 — Clashes between Kurds and police in northern Syria continued for a third day, wounding three yesterday, said a Syrian Kurdish party official on a visit to the northern Iraqi city of Arbil.
Nuri Brimo, a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Union (KDU), said three Kurds were wounded in the morning in the town of Kobani, as clashes continued in northeastern Syria, home to many of the country’s Kurdish minority.
According to Kurdish Syrian officials, 14 Kurds were killed and more than 100 wounded in and around the city of Qameshli, on Friday and Saturday in clashes that were first sparked by rival fans before a football match.
Brimo said 13 people were killed in Qameshli, 600 kilometers northeast of Damascus, on Saturday. Another three were killed during funerals for some of the victims in Amodi, a small town north of Qameshli, he added.
Brimo, from the town of Afrin, 60 kilometers north of Aleppo, said he had been given the information by telephone from Kurdish sources in Syria.
Eleven Kurdish Syrian parties issued a statement, advising Kurds in northern Syria to shut their shops and stay at home, he said.
The statement also denounced what it called “collusion” between the Syrian Army, police and local Arab residents, and called on the security forces to back off, according to Brimo.
Meanwhile, some 60 Kurds were detained overnight in Brussels after up to 20 demonstrators stormed the Syrian Embassy premises following deadly clashes between Kurds and police in Syria originally sparked by fighting between rival football fans, police said yesterday.
One of the embassy demonstrators doused himself with gas (petrol) but did not have time to set himself ablaze, two guards told AFP at police headquarters.
No one appears to have been hurt in the Brussels protest, they added.
