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| - Fact Check: Video of Kurdish woman captured by Syrian rebel fighters is 5 years old, not recent
A video of a masked man in combat fatigues carrying a woman in his arms is being widely shared on social media. Allegedly the man was a Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist and the woman a Kurdistan Workers' Party worker.
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India Today Fact Check
This video is from 2019. However, the woman was indeed a Kurdish fighter who was captured by Turkey-backed forces in Syria.
After a week-long offensive in Syria, the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham claimed on Sunday, December 8, it gained control of the capital Damascus and overthrew President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. As per a report in the Middle East Eye, tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds fled Aleppo, Syria’ second-largest city, after its takeover by rebel groups including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army.
Now, a video of a masked man in combat fatigues carrying a woman in his arms is being widely shared on social media. Allegedly the man was a Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist and the woman a Kurdistan Workers' Party worker.
A Facebook post containing the video read: "Breaking, One of Tahrir al-Sham's terrorists captures a Kurdish woman from the PKK and is taking her as booty. And another says Ah slaughter oh, slaughter. And these terrorists come out after reciting La Ilah is this Islam?". Its archive can be seen here.
India Today found the video is not from the ongoing tension in Syria; it’s from 2019. However, the woman was a Kurdish fighter who was captured by Turkey-backed forces in Syria.
Notably, the Syrian National Army and Kurdish forces have been fighting against each other for a long time. Turkey considers Syrian Kurdish fighters terrorists. There are also reports of war crimes by Turkey-backed rebel forces on Syrian Kurds.
Reportedly, the Syrian National Army and the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham were working as a coalition to topple the Assad regime. Though Turkey has rejected claims of any involvement in the latest offensive, Kurdish force say that Turkey-backed fighters participated in it.
OUR PROBE
With the help of a reverse image search, we found the viral video in an X post shared by a news organization called Rudaw English. It claimed the Kurdish woman fighter was Cicek Kobane. She was captured alive by Turkey-backed militia. As per the video report dated October 26, 2019, Kobane was a member of the Kurdish Women's Protection Units. The group had called on the international community to intervene to save Kobane.
Turkish news outlet TRT World in an October 2019 video report about the incident noted the woman was captured in Ayn Issa in Syria. This report also contained a separate clip of Kobane in which, as per TRT World, she said that she was treated well by the forces.
Kobane was accused of organising terror attacks against civilians and Turkish security forces. In March 2021, she was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Turkish court on multiple charges including attempted murder, a Kurdish news outlet reported.
Thus, it’s clear this incident is not recent but more than five years old.
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