RAQQA, Syria: The Syrian military claimed Tuesday that guards from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had abandoned a camp in northeast Syria housing thousands of people linked to the Daesh group, allowing the detainees to escape.
The Al-Hol camp houses mainly women and children who are family members of Daesh members or accused of being otherwise affiliated with the group. Thousands of accused Daesh militants are separately housed in prisons in northeast Syria.
The SDF subsequently confirmed that its guards had withdrawn from the camp, blaming “international indifference toward the issue of the Daesh terrorist organization and the failure of the international community to assume its responsibilities in addressing this serious matter,” using another abbreviation for Daesh.
It said its forces had redeployed “in the vicinity of cities in northern Syria that are facing increasing risks and threats” from government forces.
Representatives of the US military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier Tuesday, Syria’s ministry of interior said Tuesday that 120 Daesh members escaped from a prison in northeast Syria a day earlier, amid clashes between government forces and the SDF, which guards the prison.
Security forces recaptured 81 of the escapees, “while intensive security efforts continue to pursue the remaining fugitives and take the necessary legal measures against them,” the statement said.
The SDF and the government have traded blame over the escape from a prison in the town of Shaddadeh, amid the breakdown of a ceasefire deal between the two sides.
The SDF, the main US-backed force that fought Daesh in Syria, controls more than a dozen prisons in the northeast where some 9,000 Daesh members have been held for years without trial. Many of the detained extremists are believed to have carried out atrocities in Syria and Iraq after Daesh declared a caliphate in June 2014 over large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Daesh was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries.
Under a deal announced Sunday, government forces were to take over control of the prisons from the SDF, but the transfer did not go smoothly.
On Monday, Syrian government forces and SDF fighters clashed around two prisons housing members of the Daesh group in Syria’s northeast.
The clashes came as SDF chief commander Mazloum Abdi was said to be in Damascus to attempt to solidify a ceasefire deal reached Sunday that ended days of deadly fighting during which government forces captured wide areas of northeast Syria from the SDF.
Abdi issued no statement after the meeting and the SDF later issued a statement calling for “all of our youth” to “join the ranks of the resistance,” appearing to signal that the deal had fallen apart.
President Ahmad Al-Sharaa postponed a planned trip to Germany Tuesday amid the ongoing tensions in northeast Syria.
Syrian military accuses Kurdish forces of allowing Daesh-linked detainees to escape from Al-Hol camp
https://arab.news/2g88x
Syrian military accuses Kurdish forces of allowing Daesh-linked detainees to escape from Al-Hol camp
- Thousands of accused Daesh militants are separately housed in prisons in northeast Syria
- Security forces recaptured 81 of the escapees, “while intensive security efforts continue to pursue the remaining fugitives”
Iran war chokes aid corridors, obstructing global relief efforts
- “People in dire need of assistance will have to wait longer for food,” said Bauer
- Tents, tarpaulins and lamps destined for Gaza and the West Bank have become stuck in the supply chain, the IOM said
GENEVA: Key humanitarian air, sea and land routes are being constricted by disruption from the war in the Middle East, delaying life-saving shipments to some of the world’s worst crises, 10 aid officials have told Reuters.
The US–Israeli war on Iran entered its seventh day on Friday, convulsing global markets and disrupting supply chains with airspace closures and the halt of shipping through the critical Strait of Hormuz.
Aid to Gaza and Sudan is grinding to a halt and costs are soaring for help to the hundreds of millions suffering hunger crises around the world.
“People in dire need of assistance will have to wait longer for food,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, Director of Food Security at the World Food Programme.
Already, tents, tarpaulins and lamps destined for the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank have become stuck in the supply chain, the International Organization for Migration said.
DUBAI AID HUB HOBBLED BY AIR AND SEA RESTRICTIONS
Aid groups say higher operational costs are straining budgets already facing massive donor cuts. The IOM said shipping firms were demanding emergency surcharges of approximately $3,000 per container.
Humanitarian groups stocking goods for rapid regional deployment at warehouses in Dubai’s Humanitarian Hub face challenges moving supplies onto transit routes.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies cannot move trauma kits to help the Iranian Red Crescent with search and rescue from its Dubai hub, where they sit in a estimated 1 million Swiss franc ($1.28 million) pre-positioned emergency stockpile, said Cecile Terraz, a director at the IFRC.
The group cannot move stock through Jebel Ali port — the region’s largest container terminal, which was set on fire by the debris of an intercepted missile — from where cargo normally moves onto planes or into the Strait of Hormuz.
The World Health Organization’s Dubai hub operations are also frozen, regional director Hanan Balkhy said, obstructing 50 emergency requests from 25 countries and hampering operations such as polio vaccination.
Ripple effects farther afield are also likely.
Famine-struck Sudan is particularly exposed due to additional restrictions since February 28 on the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, the UNHCR said.
“We are particularly concerned about Africa,” said a spokeswoman, adding that some cargoes were being sent around the Cape of Good Hope. The route takes up to three weeks longer.
Costs for fuel, transportation and insurance are also rising, and Terraz said the IFRC may have to cut deliveries to the Iranian Red Crescent.
Emma Maspero, senior manager in Copenhagen of the supply division of the UN children’s body UNICEF, said she hoped flights carrying perishable humanitarian goods such as vaccines could be prioritized amid the airspace restrictions.
