Rudaw.net

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Shravn Muslim, the son of Syrian-Kurdish leader Salih Muslim, has been killed in fighting with al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group said.

ISIS said its snipers had specifically singled out the son of Salih Muslim, leader of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which dominates in Syria’s Kurdish regions and has been involved in fierce battles with Islamist fighters and units from the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

The leaders of PYD's armed wing, known as the People's Defense Units (YPG), also confirmed the ISIS claim, saying that Shravn Salih was killed in clashes with Islamist fighters in Girespi.

The YPG, which has deployed thousands of disciplined and trained fighters along the border areas of Kurdish Syria to counter the advance of Islamist groups, said that Salih's son was killed on Wednesday morning.

The PYD dominates the Kurdish areas of Syria and has refused to join the war against the regime of Bashar Assad or the inner fighting between various Syrian opposition groups.

Muslim has visited Turkey several times in the past few months to negotiate with Turkish officials and perhaps pave the way for the creation of a Kurdish autonomous region in northeastern Syria.

Clashes between the PYD and Islamist groups have displaced tens of thousands of Kurdish and some Arab families. Most have crossed the border into the Kurdistan Region where they have settled in refugee camps near Erbil.