NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria: US-backed Syrian forces prepared for another outpouring of civilians and suspected militants Thursday from the remnants of the Daesh group’s “caliphate,” which is teetering on the brink of total collapse.
A fierce assault on the besieged enclave in eastern Syria has sparked an exodus of dust-covered children, veiled women dragging suitcases and disheveled, wounded men from the village of Baghouz.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are waiting for more survivors to trickle out before dealing what they hope will be a final blow to militants holed-up in a makeshift camp along the banks of the Euphrates.
The SDF was not actively advancing Thursday, out of concern for remaining civilians, but its fighters entered the settlement two days earlier and control a chunk of it, an SDF source said.
Remaining families have been pushed toward the far end of the camp near the river, he said.
More than 7,000 people have exited the enclave over the past three days, mostly women and children.
The operation to smash the last pocket of the “caliphate” that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi proclaimed in 2014 had resumed on Friday after a long humanitarian pause.
The deluge of fire unleashed by SDF artillery and coalition air strikes at the weekend appears to have taken a toll on the diehard militants and relatives still inside.
Many emerged on Wednesday wounded and using crutches.
One bearded man gripped the handle of a half-full blood bag attached to his body, as he trudged across a field to reach an SDF screening point.
Around him, a solemn procession of bearded men led by armed guards filed slowly toward US-led coalition troops for processing.
Around a tenth of the nearly 58,000 people who have fled the last Daesh bastion since December were militants trying to slip back into civilian life, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
They have emerged into the spotlight of the international media for the first time.
Daesh fighters had previously managed to secure passage out of their former strongholds before US-backed forces recaptured the territory.
Remaining militants, however, are now surrounded on all sides, with Syrian government forces and their allies on the west bank of the Euphrates blocking any escape across the river and Iraqi government forces preventing any move downstream.
A senior SDF officer said 400 militants were captured on Tuesday night as they attempted to slip out of Baghouz in an escape he said was organized by a network that had planned to smuggle them to remote hideouts.
While suspected militants are transferred to Kurdish-run detention centers, their relatives are trucked to camps for the displaced further north.
An AFP correspondent on Thursday saw more than 10 truckloads of people leaving an SDF screening point en route to the camps, a day after hundreds steamed out of Baghouz.
Around 4,000 people arrived from Baghouz to the Al-Hol camp on Wednesday, pushing the camp’s population to over 60,000, according to the International Rescue Committee.
Many are wounded or in poor physical shape after living for weeks without much food and hiding from bombs in underground shelters.
“Many of the arrivals are in a very weak condition or have life-changing injuries” Misty Buswell of the IRC said.
“Particularly vulnerable are the many heavily pregnant women as well as mothers with newborns.”
The battle against Daesh is now the main front of the Syrian war, which has claimed more than 360,000 lives since 2011.
The capture of Baghouz would mark the end of Daesh territorial control in the region and deal a death blow to the “caliphate” proclaimed in 2014, which once covered huge swathes of Syria and Iraq.
At its peak more than four years ago, the proto-state created by Daesh was the size of the United Kingdom and administered millions of people.
It effectively collapsed in 2017 when Daesh lost most of its major cities in both countries.
The loss of Baghouz, which the SDF says is only days away, would carry mostly symbolic value.
The group remains a potent force in both Syria and Iraq, where it carries out deadly attacks.
In Syria, it maintains a presence in the vast Badiya desert and has claimed attacks in SDF-held territory.
Syria force braces for new outflux from last Daesh village
Syria force braces for new outflux from last Daesh village
- A fierce assault on the besieged enclave in eastern Syria has sparked an exodus of dust-covered children and veiled women
- Daesh remains a potent force in both Syria and Iraq, where it carries out deadly attacks
Syrian Kurdish enclave on alert amid shaky ceasefire
- Tensions persist despite latest ceasefire
- Tensions persist despite latest ceasefire
- Kurdish commander says ready for war or political solution
QAMISHLI, Syria: With Syria’s Islamist-led government bearing down on Kurdish forces, residents of their last major enclave are on alert, mindful of last year’s violence against other minority groups and determined to preserve their self-rule.
In the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in the northeast, a mechanic, a storekeeper, and a student were among those taking part in a nighttime volunteer patrol this week, vowing to defend their area and putting little faith in a shaky ceasefire.
“We’re going out to guard our neighborhoods, to stand with our people and protect our land,” said Yazan Ghanem, 23. “This is our land. We won’t accept any outside interference in our areas.”
’FEARS AND DOUBTS’ WEIGH ON KURDS, SAYS RESIDENT
It reflects simmering tensions despite the US-backed ceasefire, which was extended on Saturday for 15 days. Some clashes have taken place since then.
Having taken swathes of the north and east from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s government is pressing its demand for the integration of the remaining Kurdish-run enclaves with the state.
The SDF is clinging on in its northeastern enclave — one of several where Kurds — an oppressed group under the ousted Assad dynasty — established de facto autonomy during the civil war.
While Sharaa has repeatedly vowed to uphold Kurdish rights — he recognized Kurdish as a national language earlier this month — the residents patrolling Qamishli on Monday had little confidence in the former Al-Qaeda commander.
“We have fears and doubts about the government because, quite simply, wherever it has entered, there have been massacres and killing,” said Radwan Eissa, brandishing a gun.
Fears among Syrian minorities grew last year during several bouts of violence in which the Sunni Muslim-led government clashed with members of the Alawite community in Syria’s coastal region, and Druze communities in Sweida province, with government-aligned fighters killing hundreds of people.
Sharaa has promised accountability.
A senior Syrian government official said Kurdish fears were “understandable” based on abuses committed by army personnel in Sweida and some violations carried out by troops as they pressed into Kurdish-held areas in recent weeks.
The official said two people had been arrested for the recent abuses and a third was on the run, but being pursued. “We are keen to learn from past experiences, and we did,” he added.
The prosecutor general last year pressed charges against some 300 people linked to armed factions affiliated with the Syrian army over the violence in the coastal region, and around 265 who belonged to Assad-era paramilitary groups.
Human Rights Watch said on January 25 that both parties appeared to have committed abuses that violated international law during the current escalation in the northeast.
SDF READY ‘FOR WAR AND POLITICAL SOLUTIONS’
Government forces have advanced to the outskirts of SDF-held Hasakah, an ethnically mixed city some 70 km (45 miles) south of Qamishli. They have also encircled Kobani, or Ain Al-Arab, a Kurdish-held town at the Turkish border.
The SDF has vowed to protect Kurdish regions.
In an interview with Kurdish broadcaster Ronahi on Sunday, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said dialogue continued with Damascus, and that after the 15-day period “serious steps” would be taken toward integration.
“Our forces are ready for war and political solutions,” he said. “The Kurds must get their rights in this region, and join the Syrian state,” he said.
The Syrian official said the January 18 integration deal aimed to reassure Kurds by stipulating that Syrian troops would not enter Kurdish areas and by spelling out how local communities would be able to delegate their own representatives.
The SDF’s territory grew as it partnered with the United States against Islamic State in Syria.
But its position weakened as Washington deepened ties to Sharaa over the last year. President Donald Trump said on January 20 Washington was trying to protect the Kurds.
Syria’s dominant Kurdish group, the PYD, follows a political doctrine emphasising leftism and feminism.
Giwana Hussein, a 23-year-old Qamishli student, said she hoped the ceasefire showed that both sides wanted a political solution. She urged Damascus to let Kurds run their own affairs, and said she was afraid that if the government took control, women’s rights would be marginalized.
The Syrian official said the government wanted to ensure a new constitution addressed Kurdish concerns, but said that it could only come after an integration deal was agreed and implemented. “Once we merge, we can discuss everything,” the official said.
Ivan Hassib, a Kurdish activist critical of the PYD, said Sharaa’s decree recognizing Kurdish rights was positive but only a first step, saying they must be enshrined in the constitution and not limited to cultural rights: “The lasting solution ... is for the Kurds and other groups to obtain some form of autonomy.”
