The hostage-taking occurred after violent clashes with Kurdish fighters in two villages of Tall Aren in Aleppo province and Tall Hassel, which is nearby, a monitoring group said on Wednesday.

"Militants of Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have seized control of Tall Aren village in Aleppo province and are imposing a siege to another nearby village, Tall Hassel," so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, affiliated to militant groups, said.

The assassination on Tuesday of Issa Huso, a member of the Supreme Kurdish Council, triggered a call by the military wing of the Kurdish umbrella group to fight those who believed to be behind the killing.

“They have taken hostage around 200 civilians from the inhabitants of the two villages,” said the Observatory.

The main Kurdish militia called on Tuesday for battling militant groups after a Kurdish leader was killed following weeks of clashes between the Kurds and radical Islamists.

“We call on the Kurdish people... to step forward... anyone fit to bear arms should join the ranks of the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) and to face the assaults of these [militant] armed groups,” said a YPG statement.

Isa Huso, a well-known Kurdish politician, was killed near his place of residence in Qamishli.

The YPG statement said it was clear that FSA battalions, Al-Nusra Front and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in particular, were coordinating with militant groups, adding that these groups and the FSA “have become one side in attacking the Kurdish people.”

For more than a year, Syrian Kurds have been threatened by the extremists who long ago split from the National Syrian Council opposition forces.

NJF/NJF