ISIL warns Raqqa of Tabqa dam danger

Extremists’ media machine tells people in its Syrian ‘capital’ they must leave as rising water levels threaten structure

BEIRUT // ISIL militants ordered residents to leave the Syrian city of Raqqa yesterday after reports that a dam on the Euphrates River could collapse, activists said. Fighting at the Tabqa dam – held by the extremist group and contested by US-backed forces – has put it out of service, risking dangerous rising water levels, a technician at the dam said.

The militants said coalition air strikes had weakened the Tabqa dam, about 40 kilo- metres west of Raqqa, and that the water level behind the dam was rising. A Kurdish- Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces ( SDF) is battling to take the dam and nearby Tabqa town from ISIL before advancing on Raqqa – the capital of the group’s self-styled “caliphate”.

The extremists captured the city from Syrian rebels in 2014.

The Syrian journalist opposition group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently reported civilians began fleeing at noon.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-run monitoring group, yesterday reported that the dam was out of service for unspecified reasons.

A source at the dam said the fighting had damaged its power station, forcing a halt to operations yesterday.

“Shelling on the area that supplies that dam with electricity has put it out of service,” the source said.

“The work needed to fix the problem is not possible because there is not sufficient staff available as a result of the intensive shelling in the area of the dam,” he said.

“If the problem is not fixed, it will begin to pose a danger to the dam.”

The source could not confirm what kind of shelling damaged the power station, but there has been heavy fighting nearby as well as air raids by the US-led coalition against ISIL.

SDF spokesman Talal Sello said there was no imminent danger to the dam, the largest in Syria.

“There have been no air strikes on the dam,” he said.

SDF fighters were flown behind ISIL lines last week by US forces to begin their assault on the dam.

“We carried out this operation to land there to avoid shelling or damage to the dam,” Mr Sello said.

SDF fighters reached one of the entrances of the dam on Friday, battling ISIL in clashes in which extremists were killed or wounded. The dam remains under ISIL control, with SDF progress being hampered by exposed terrain which is heavily mined, the Observatory said.

ISIL issued warnings through its propaganda agency Amaq warning the dam “is threatened with collapse at any moment because of American strikes and a large rise in water levels”. The source at the dam said there had not yet been significant water level increases, although he acknowledged levels would rise if the facility remained out of service.

Earlier this month, the UN’s humanitarian coordination agency, OCHA, said water levels in the Euphrates had risen by 10 metres since late January, in part because of heavy rain and snow.

But it warned that damage to the dam “could lead to massive scale flooding across Raqqa and as far away as Deir Ezzor” province to the south-east.

Any further rises in the water level or damage to the Tabqa dam “would have catastrophic humanitarian implications downstream”, the UN said.

More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since its conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.