Thousands flee clashes between Syria army, IS
MANBIJ: Tens of thousands of Syrian civilians have fled ferocious fighting between Russianbacked regime forces and Islamic State group jihadists over the past week in the country’s ravaged north. Supported by Russian air power and artillery, Syrian government forces have waged a fierce offensive against IS, seizing around 90 villages since mid-January. They took eight yesterday alone, a military source told state news agency SANA, “expanding our control in northeast parts of Aleppo province”. Their aim, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, is IS-held Khafsah, the main station pumping water into Aleppo.
Residents of Syria’s second city have been without mains water for 47 days after the jihadists cut the supply. The fighting over the past week has sparked an exodus of “more than 30,000 civilians, most of them women and children”, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said yesterday. Most of the displaced went to areas around Manbij, held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters also fighting IS. An AFP correspondent in Manbij saw dozens of families speeding towards the relative safety of the town on motorcycles and in small buses and cars. Many looked exhausted as they lined up at a checkpoint manned by the Manbij Military Council, the SDF unit that controls the town, to be searched and get permission to enter.
‘Difficult circumstances’
Ibrahim Al-Quftan, co-chair of Manbij’s civil administration said that as many as 40,000 displaced had arrived in recent days. “The numbers of displaced people here are still rising because of the clashes between the Syrian regime and Daesh (IS),” Quftan said. “These people are suffering very difficult circumstances.” Manbij already hosts “tens of thousands of displaced people that fled previous clashes in the area and are living in difficult circumstances”, according to Abdel Rahman. “This will make it difficult (for local authorities) to welcome a new wave of displaced people, given their inability to tend to their pressing needs.” Since civil war broke out in Syria in March 2011, more than half of its pre-war population has been forced to flee their homes.
The northern province of Aleppo hosts tens of thousands of displaced Syrians, many in camps near the border with Turkey. Rebel backer Ankara sent its own troops into Syria in August to fight both IS and Kurdish units in operation “Euphrates Shield”. Turkey considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which makes up most of the SDF, a “terrorist” group because of its ties to outlawed Kurdish militia in southeast Turkey. On February 23, the Turkish-backed rebels of Euphrates Shield captured the town of Al-Bab, which was IS’s last bastion in Aleppo province. They have since set their sights on Manbij, with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu this week threatening to bomb YPG fighters unless they leave the town. The Observatory yesterday reported escalating violence and shelling between Euphrates Shield rebels and the SDF.
‘Rational, balanced agenda’
More than 310,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict erupted with protests against President Bashar Al-Assad’s rule, but international efforts at stemming the violence have so far failed. Another round of UN-brokered peace talks ended Friday in Geneva, with envoy Staffan de Mistura hoping to convene another session later this month that would include the issue of counter-terrorism. Chief regime negotiator Bashar Al-Jaafari told journalists in Geneva yesterday the new inclusion indicated the government had successfully “imposed a rational, balanced agenda” on the talks. —AFP