The Kurdish National Council has accused the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) of being behind the murder of its member in Syria, Ismail Fattah.

In a statement released on Tuesday, January 21, the Council said that on January 16, Ismail Fattah’s family reported his disappearance. After investigating, they discovered that he was detained by the security forces of the PYD. His family and the residents of the area were surprised by the announcement from those forces that Fattah’s body was found on the night of the 19th of the same month.

The National Council condemned Fattah’s murder in its statement, describing what happened as a “hideous crime.”

The Council stated that the murder of its member under these “sensitive circumstances seeks to undermine efforts to build trust and achieve a unified Kurdish stance,” holding the security forces of the PYD and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) responsible. It called on the latter to assume its responsibility by revealing the circumstances of the crime to the public and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Ismail Fattah, a member of the Kurdish National Council in Syria, was kidnapped and killed.

The PYD and its military wing, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), constitute the backbone of the SDF and play a prominent role in managing the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria-AANES (the political umbrella of the SDF), both in service and political matters, alongside a significant role in military and security domains.

The SDF controls northeastern Syria and is supported by the International Coalition, which includes Arab military factions alongside the Kurdish units.

Residents in the town of Qamishli, northeast of al-Hasakah, found Fattah’s body lying beside the road near makeshift oil refineries in the countryside of Qamishli.

The Internal Security Forces (Asayish) affiliated with the SDF stated in a statement issued on January 20 that they received a report about a body in the Terbisi area, which was confirmed to belong to Ismail Fattah, a local resident.

Asayish has launched an investigation into the circumstances of the crime to gather evidence to pursue the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

In recent years, attacks and assaults on the offices of the Kurdish National Council and its members have occurred repeatedly, with the Council often accusing an armed group belonging to the Democratic Union Party and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) known as the Revolutionary Youth (Ciwanên Şoreşger).

Many of these assaults coincided with attempts at Kurdish-Kurdish rapprochement, while the incident of Fattah’s murder comes at a time of more serious steps toward this rapprochement, especially with the notable presence of Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.