Jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda have taken hostage around 200 Kurdish civilians after violent clashes with Kurdish fighters in two villages of eastern Syria, a monitoring group says.
"Fighters of Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have seized control of Tall Aren village in Aleppo province and are laying siege to another village nearby, Tall Hassel," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"They have taken hostage around 200 civilians from the inhabitants of the two villages," it said, without giving details on their demands.
On Tuesday, Syria's main Kurdish militia issued a call to arms to battle jihadists, hours after a Kurdish leader was killed following weeks of clashes between the minority group and radical Islamists.
"We call on the Kurdish people... to step forward... anyone fit to bear arms should join the ranks of the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) and to face the assaults of these (jihadist) armed groups," said a YPG statement.
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Isa Huso, a prominent Kurdish politician, was assassinated as he left his house in the city of Qamishli, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported.
That raised to new heights Kurdish resentment against the main opposition National Coalition and mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Clashes between jihadists and Kurdish fighters have raged for some two weeks, after jihadists were expelled from the key town of Ras al-Ain on the Turkish border.
Marginalised for decades by Damascus, Kurds and their fighters have tried to ensure that neither regime forces nor the opposition takes control of their areas.
