A senior Syrian Kurdish leader rejected on Sunday earlier reports that Kurds are seeking to establish an independent Kurdish government in northern Syria

A senior Syrian Kurdish leader rejected on Sunday earlier reports that Kurds are seeking to establish an independent Kurdish government in northern Syria.

China’s Xinhua news agency quoted Salih Muslim, the leader of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), as saying, “There is no intention among the Kurds to form their own government, nor to secede from Syria.”

On Saturday, Qatar-based al-Jazeera news network quoted Muslim as saying that Syria’s Kurds were planning to create a “temporary autonomous government to administer their regions in the north.”

The Syrian government has granted the Kurds a certain level of autonomy since 2012 and they are now controlling security of the region.

This comes as clashes continued between PYD-linked Kurdish militants and foreign-backed Takfiri militants around several villages in northeastern Syria near the border with Turkey on Saturday.

The Kurdish militants took control of a checkpoint and also seized light weapons, ammunition, a vehicle mounted with a heavy machinegun, and a mortar launcher.

On July 17, the Kurdish fighters took control of the town of Ras al-Ain in the border province of Hasakah, forcing out the al-Qaeda-linked militants.