YPG drives out 800 Syrian Turkmens from northern Syrian village

The People's Protection Units (YPG), armed branch of outlawed-PKK's Syrian offshoot PYD, reportedly drove out more than 800 Syrian Turkmens on Friday in Hamam village located in some 10 kilometers southeast of northern Syrian town of Tal Abyad.

According to information obtained from the Turkish edition of Sabah newspaper, YPG militants gathered more than 800 villagers in a school, including women and children, accusing them of helping self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) militants, who were recently driven out of Tal Abyad by YPG.

Sources from the village said that YPG militants gave two hours to villagers to evacuate the village.

YPG militants later drove the villagers out of from Hamam village, and headed to nearby Dimeşli village.

YPG recently gained the upper hand in the struggle against ISIS with the help of U.S. led coalition's airstrikes, as the terrorist organization suffered a heavy blow in its siege against northern Syrian town of Kobani. In their recent advance, YPG took control of around 80 Turkmen villages.

Reports on forced migration of Arabs and Turkmens with the strategic aim of linking separate 'cantons' of Afrin (northwest of Aleppo) and Kobani with the rest of Syrian Kurdish areas in the east (Qamishli being its center) has surfaced after YPG's advance.