UPDATE - PYD frees abducted Syrian Kurdish leader

*UPDATES WITH REMARKS FROM BIRO

By Idris Okuducu

ERBIL, Iraq (AA) - PYD forces, the Syrian affiliate of the terrorist PKK organization, on Sunday released the head of Syria’s Kurdish National Council, Ibrahim Biro, who was abducted Saturday in the northeastern al-Hasakah province, a Kurdish official has said.

"Ibrahim Biro, who was abducted by PYD forces, was brought to a place close to the Iraqi border with Syria and released overnight," Nuri Birimo, a senior member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDP-S) told Anadolu Agency.

He said Biro had walked to a Kurdish peshmerga position and was later secured by peshmerga forces.

The Kurdish member said that Biro was in good health.

Biro later spoke to Anadolu Agency. He said that he was held for six hours at a PYD camp on the Turkish-Syrian border before being released. He added none of the senior members of the group talked to him during this time.

Biro said that prior to his release, the PYD militants threatened to “mutilate and kill” him if he ever returned to Syria.

“Nobody has the right to take me away from my country. I will go back,” he told Anadolu Agency.

As for the reason behind his abduction, Biro said the PYD considered KDP-S a threat.

"The PYD is getting weaker every day both politically and militarily. Their aim is to cause a civil war in order to cover up the oppression they have been imposing on the Syrian people for the past few years, he said"

“They attack everything they see as a threat. Since they also consider KDP-S a threat, they keep attacking our party offices and members, and threatening them with death,” he said.

Biro went on to say that the situation of the Syrian Kurds living under PYD control was getting worse everyday, and added that the PYD had extorted money from people and businesses in Qamishli -- where he was abducted at gunpoint following a conference.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria is an affiliate of the party of the same name in Iraq, led by Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish Regional Government in the northern part of the country.

The Kurdish National Council is a coalition of several Kurdish Syrian parties, generally considered at odds with the PYD.