Militants target civilians in attack on Syrian camp

BEIRUT — Islamic State militants staged a surprise attack early Tuesday at a crossing frequently used by Iraqi and Syrian civilians seeking safety in northeastern Syria, killing at least 37 people, mostly civilians, Kurdish officials and activists said.

The militants struck before dawn after sneaking into the village of Rajm Sleibi, located along a front line that separates the Kurdish-controlled Hassakeh province from ISIL-held areas further south. Some militants reportedly blew themselves up at a Kurdish checkpoint while others attacked sleeping civilians in a nearby temporary camp sheltering hundreds of displaced people who fled ISIL-controlled territory.

The International Rescue Committee said thousands of people from the Iraqi city of Mosul have travelled west to the Sleibi crossing since Octo- ber, often via smugglers. In a statement, it said several children were among the dead and wounded.

“It was three in the morning when Daesh came and started to shoot at people,” said Abdulah Khalef Hamid, an Iraqi refugee from Mosul, who said his mother-in-law was killed in Tuesday’s attack. “I was wounded and they thought I was dead so they left me. We were around 200 families, they left at sunrise,” he added.

Survivors from the attack on the camp said the militants arrived in four cars before shooting several people and kidnapping others.

“They were shouting ‘You are infidels and you are going toward the infidels,’” said a displaced Syrian woman. “They shot at the checkpoint and at the civilians there, and they dragged the youngsters and put them in the cars and drove them away,” she said.