In a statement about the ongoing attacks of al-Qaeda affiliated groups against Tal Abyad of Reef al-Raqqa, People's Defense Units (YPG) said that these groups were not only bombarding the city with heavy weapons but also kidnapping hundreds of civilians and threatening them with death.

YPG underlined that they will not remain silent in the face of the attacks against Kurdish neighborhoods, adding that they would “make an all-out effort for the protection of Kurds and the Kurdish People's House in the city”.

YPG called on the residents of the Kurdish city Kobani, in western Kurdistan, to protect the Kurds in Tal Abyad and to take sides with YPG.

According to the reports by Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), fighters from the Kurdish front Jabhat al-Akrad detained the Emir (leader) of the ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham) in the city along with the combatants accompanying him while they were detonating explosives in a school which was a headquarter for a Kurdish party in the city yesterday. SOHR has reported today that Jabhat al-Akrad has released the ISIS Emir in Tal Abyad. A source from the brigade has told the SOHR that the decision for release came through talks with intermediaries from rebel battalions (the same battalions that fought on the side of the ISIS), with the agreement that the hundreds of kidnapped Syrian Kurdish civilians be released by the ISIS. The kidnapped civilians are relatives of the fighters in the Kurdish brigade.

Local sources report that some 80 members of the al-Nusra front were killed in clashes in the city in the last one day.

Al-Qaeda affiliated groups have kidnapped hundreds of civilians, mainly women and children, in the Tal Abyad city after raiding the Kurdish neighborhoods in the region today. The detainees have reportedly been threatened with decapitation.

The armed gang groups which are trying to expel Kurds from the city are allegedly preparing for a massacre in the Kurdish region. ANHA news agency's correspondent on the ground has reported heavy weapon attacks currently being launched against the villages of Yabse and Surkiriye near Tal Abyad. Fierce clashes reported in the area.

On the other hand, clashes between YPG and al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra and ISIS are also continuing in the region of Çelaxa, located between Tirbespi and Qamishli, the largest city in western Kurdistan, since 17 July. Dozens of members of the Turkey-backed groups have been killed by YPG which has also lost 12 fighters in the last five days of fierce clashes.

Early Tuesday afternoon, Syria's Al Nusra Front launched an attack in Serekaniye targeting a patrolling car of Women's Defense Units (YPJ) affiliated to People's Defense Units (YPG).Clashes broke out in the city as YPG responded to the attacks of the group. Following two days of intense clashes, YPG cleared the Serekaniye city of armed groups and took control over their headquarters where they found and seized a number of passports belonging to Turkish, American, Egyptian, Tunisian and Bahraini citizens who crossed into Syria from Turkey.

On 17th July, YPG took the control of the Rojava-Ceylanpınar border gate whose control it one day later handed over to the People's Assembly of Serekaniye.

On the same day, Turkish military opened fire on Serekaniye from Urfa's Ceylanpınar district.