YPG continues to abduct minors despite outcry in Syria
Boys walk together in the marketplace at Al-Hol camp, Hassakeh province, Syria, March 31, 2019. (AP File Photo)


The terrorist group PKK's Syrian offshoot, the YPG, forcibly recruited another teenager in the northeastern province of Raqqa, local sources said Monday.

Hamed al-Zelan, 17, was abducted by the terrorist group from the town of Abu Hamam, said the sources, who wished to remain anonymous.

The YPG/PKK takes children to its training camps in Hassakeh in northeastern Syria.

The terrorist group's use of "child soldiers" has repeatedly been documented in United Nations reports.

A U.N. report, "Children and armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic," released May 18, showed that the YPG/PKK used more than 400 children between July 2018 and June 2020.

In its more than 40-year terrorism campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.​

Last week, parents of children who were kidnapped by the YPG staged a protest in front of the U.N. headquarters in Qamishli, northeastern Syria, according to footage shared on Twitter.