By Esref Musa
TAL ABYAD, Syria (AA) - The terrorist group PKK/YPG recently kidnapped two teenage girls in northern Syria to recruit them into their armed ranks, an opposition spokesperson said.
The girls, ages 14 and 16, were kidnapped on June 6 from Shahba in the Aleppo province, Redor al-Ahmed, spokesperson for the opposition Independent Kurdish Rabita group, told Anadolu.
The minors kidnapped by the terror group are not allowed to communicate with their parents, he said.
The terror group usually takes the abducted children to terror camps for armed training. It has kidnapped more than 30 children since the beginning of the year to recruit them in the areas it has occupied in Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Al-Hasakah provinces.
The use of children as armed combatants is expressly forbidden under international humanitarian law and is defined as a war crime.
In its nearly 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is its Syrian offshoot.
*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara