Damascus, Nov 4 (IANS): The Islamic State (IS) released about 93 Kurds captured nine months ago in northern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday.

IS kept the kidnapped Kurds in the Alieh area near Ayn al-Arab on charges of being loyal to the Kurdish Democratic Party, which is currently fighting the IS alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units(YPG) in Ayn al-Arab, Xinhua reported.

Over 53 of those released crossed into Turkey Monday, while the destination of the rest 40 Kurds remained unknown, according to the Observatory.

Recently, the IS has released 25 Kurdish students captured in Aleppo province. It remains unclear what pushed the IS to release the snatched Kurds in spite of the raging battles between its fighters and the Kurdish militants in Ayn al-Arab.

Meanwhile, the observatory said that intense clashes were still raging between the YPG and the IS group near the towns of Albour and Manazi, in the western countryside of Ayn al-Arab.

On Sep 15, the IS unleashed its wide-scale offensive against the city in a bid to capture it, which, if it succeeds, would enable the IS to link its self-declared capital of al-Raqqa with Ayn al-Arab and stretch its territory to the areas bordering Turkey.

The IS has captured more than 300 villages around the city and managed to storm parts of it after forcing over 160,000 people to flee into neighbouring Turkey.