"We are angry at both of them (the rebels and the government), because the rebels entered Ras Al Ain and because the regime bombed us with its aircraft," Mohammed said. "Most of the Kurds want neither the rebels nor the regime."

The refugee farmer reflected the ambivalence many members of Syria's ethnic Kurdish minority have had toward Syria's grinding conflict.

Since the start of the uprising 19 months ago, various Kurdish political parties have resisted joining Syrian opposition groups, which are dominated by Arabs.

Last summer, a Kurdish militia closely affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, assumed control over a number of predominantly Kurdish towns along the border with Turkey. The power grab triggered alarm bells in Turkey, which has fought a 30-year war against PKK guerillas.

Roughly half of Ras Al Ain's population is said to be Kurdish. On Wednesday, an umbrella group of Kurdish political parties issued a public declaration, demanding that all armed groups abandon the border town. It was a warning primarily to the Free Syrian Army rebels, who now patrol Ras Al Ain in pickup trucks jerry-rigged with heavy machine guns.

"The FSA has to know that their enemy is not in Ras Al Ain and in other Kurdish areas. Their enemy is in Aleppo and Damascus, so why don't you go there to attack your real enemy?" said Omar Aloush, a top official in the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, the Syrian wing of the PKK.

Speaking by phone from the Kurdish-controlled Syrian town of Qoubani, Aloush said his Kurdish faction would not use force to push Syrian rebel groups out of Ras Al Ain. But he warned that his movement could withhold food and other supplies to put pressure on the rebels.

The threats were met with defiance by a rebel media activist in Ras Al Ain.

"We don't care if the Kurds say you have to leave," said Yalmaz Basha of the FSA. "All Syrians have to sacrifice, even the Kurds, because they are part of the Syrian people."

The simmering tensions between Kurdish militiamen and the FSA have exploded in deadly violence within the past month in the embattled northern city of Aleppo.

They also underscore the difficulties foreign powers face trying to unify Syria's opposition, while trying to hasten the downfall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

On Friday, the Turkish government once again denounced the Syrian regime, claiming it had no legitimacy.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu then announced his government would be recognizing a newly formed Western-backed opposition movement known as the National Coalition Forces of the Syrian Revolution as "the legitimate representative of the Syrian people."

But Turkey has failed to deter the Syrian military from carrying out operations within sight of the Turkish border.

On Friday, Syrian and Turkish witnesses told CNN they saw Syrian government aircraft bombing targets near the Bab el Hawa border get between the two countries.