Daesh kills 32 at refugee camp
beirut — At least 32 people were killed on Tuesday in a Daesh attack near a refugee camp on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq, a monitor said.
The attack came as the Kurdish-Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces presses an offensive against Daesh in the town of Tabqa as part of an assault on the militant bastion Raqa.
The dawn Daesh attack hit a makeshift camp where some 300 families were waiting to cross into SDF-held territory in Hasakeh province, in northeastern Syria.
“At least five suicide attackers blew themselves up outside and inside a camp for Iraqi refugees and displaced Syrians in Hasakeh province,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. Heavy clashes then erupted between the Daesh fighters and the SDF, some of whose combatants were among the dead, Abdel Rahman said.
The makeshift camp lies in the Rajm Al Salibeh area just inside Syrian territory, and at least 21 of the dead were displaced Syrians or Iraqi refugees, the Observatory said.
“At least 30 people were wounded, and the death toll may rise because some people are in critical condition and others are still unaccounted for,” the Britain-based monitor said.
Kamal Derbas, a press officer for the Kurdish Red Crescent, put the civilian death toll at 22.
He said the attack began at 4am local time and that 35 people were wounded. “The dead will be buried in Al Hol,” he said, referring to the nearest town.
Civilians fleeing Daesh in both Syria and Iraq have made their way to the desolate border region seeking protection and onward passage to safety in Kurdish-controlled territory.
But conditions in the area are harsh, with little shelter and authorities often overstretched.
Daesh once controlled large parts of Hasakeh province, but it has been pushed out of almost all of it, with Kurdish authorities now in control of most of the area. —