ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Ethnic Kurds declared an interim administration in northeastern Syria on Tuesday, further solidifying their geographic and political presence after driving out Islamist rebels.
Long oppressed under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father before him, Kurds view the civil war as an opportunity to gain more autonomy - like their ethnic kin in neighboring Iraq.
Control over Syria's northeast, where Kurds predominate, had in recent months swung back and forth between them and mainly Arab Islamist rebels, who strongly oppose what they suspect are Kurdish plans to seccede.
But a Kurdish militia prevailed earlier this month, and at a meeting held in the Syrian city of Qamishlo on Tuesday, a committee of Kurdish and other groups said it was now time to set up an administrative body to run the region.[...][emphasis Capstone's]