Damascus: Syrian authorities have arrested more than 1,000 Kurds as part of a continuing campaign against the Kurdish minority, a Syrian human rights group claimed yesterday.

It was the second report in less than a week of an alleged clampdown on Kurds in Syria since last month's clashes between Syrian security forces and Kurdish rioters in which 25 were killed and more than 100 wounded.

In a statement faxed to foreign news agencies in Damascus yesterday, Aktham Naisse, the chairman of the Committees for the Defence of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria, said "arbitrary daily arrests" were still continuing against Kurdish women and men.

More than 1,000 Kurds have been arrested and many of them were tortured, he said.

Naisse said two Kurds, Firhad Mohammed Daoud, 21, from Qamishli in northeast Syria, and Hussein Hmak Nassom 22, from the northern town of Afreen, died under torture in prison.

The statement claimed that a number of Kurds were dismissed from Syrian universities for participating in last month's demonstrations.

Syrian officials could not be reached for comment.

Faisal Al Youssef, a member of the political bureau of the Kurdish Democratic Party, said that daily arrests of Kurds have been conducted since last month. He also reported the deaths of the two Kurds in detention.

On April 7, the Kurdish Yekiti Party claimed that Syrians authorities conducted raids in northeastern Syria and arrested dozens of Kurds.