{"id":10318,"date":"2019-02-24T10:34:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T02:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=10318"},"modified":"2019-02-24T10:55:51","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T02:55:51","slug":"syria-force-to-clear-more-civilians-from-last-daesh-pocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=10318","title":{"rendered":"Syria force to clear more civilians from last Daesh pocket"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A convoy of trucks transporting people who fled the Daesh group’s last holdout of Baghouz in Syria’s northern Deir Ezzor province. Photo courtesy Bulent KILIC<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

OMAR OIL FIELD, Syria, Feb 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) – U.S.-backed fighters said Saturday they are keeping a corridor open to rescue remaining civilians from Daesh’s last speck of territory in Syria, as the U.N. appealed for urgent assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have evacuated nearly 5,000 men, women and children from the militant holdout since Wednesday, bringing the SDF closer to retaking the less than half a square kilometer still under Daesh control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“On our side, the corridor is open and we hope a larger number of civilians will arrive but that depends on Daesh fighters and whether they will give civilians a chance to exit,” SDF spokesperson Adnan Afrin told AFP at their Al-Omar base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the SDF had evacuated “more than 2,000 people, including women, children and men” on Friday, mostly wives and children of Daesh fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 2,500 people arrived the same day at a Kurdish-run camp for the displaced further north, compounding dire conditions inside the already crammed settlement, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordination office OCHA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It warned of the “huge challenges” posed by the influx.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than four years after Daesh overran large parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq and declared a “caliphate”, they have lost all but a tiny patch in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 2,000 people are believed to remain inside Baghouz, according to the SDF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The force says it is trying to evacuate remaining civilians through a corridor before pressing on with a battle to crush the militants unless holdout fighters surrender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SDF transferred the fresh batch of evacuees to a screening point outside Baghouz on Friday, to weed out potential militants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An AFP correspondent saw hundreds of women and children spread out on the arid desert ground, surrounded by bags, begging for food and water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A smaller group of men were separated from the women as SDF fighters searched the latest arrivals and checked their identification cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Iraqi woman in her forties wearing a face veil held in her hand a medical report in English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the report was written for her by a doctor inside the Baghouz pocket, explaining that she needed treatment for kidney problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syrian woman Khadija Ali Mohammad, the 24-year-old wife of a deceased Daesh fighter, said conditions inside the Daesh pocket were deplorable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We were living in tents and eating bread made from bran. My three sisters and I didn’t have enough money to pay smugglers to get us out before, and our husbands had died in battle” the woman from Aleppo’s countryside in northern Syria told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was disappointed at the collapse of the Daesh proto-state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“God had promised us a caliphate and we went to it,” she said. “I feel there will be no victory although they [militants] tell us victory is near.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 44,000 people \u2013 mostly civilians \u2013 have streamed out of Daesh’s shrinking territory since early December, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While civilians are trucked north to Kurdish-run camps for the displaced, mainly to Al-Hol, six hours drive from Baghouz, suspected militants are sent to SDF-controlled detention centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCHA said 18 of the 2,500 latest arrivals in Al-Hol, mostly women and children, were in “critical condition”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Thousands more are expected in coming hours\/days at Al-Hol camp, putting a further strain on basic services,” it tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This sudden influx presents huge challenges to the response – additional tents, non-food items, water & sanitation and health supplies are urgently needed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Rescue Committee on Friday said 69 people, mostly children, had died on the way to Al-Hol, now home to more than 40,000 of the displaced, or shortly after arriving in past weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Two thirds of the deaths are of babies under one year old,” the relief group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SDF says it has limited resources to administer camps and has called for support from the international community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OMAR OIL FIELD, Syria, Feb 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) – U.S.-backed fighters said Saturday they are keeping a corridor open to rescue remaining civilians from Daesh’s last speck of territory in Syria, as the U.N. appealed for urgent assistance. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have evacuated nearly 5,000 men, women and children from the militant holdout since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":10319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,291],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10318"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}