Daesh Closer to Defeat in Last Syrian Enclave
NEAR BAGHOUZ (Dispatches) – Daesh appeared closer to defeat in its last enclave in eastern Syria on Wednesday, as a civilian convoy left the besieged area estimates show a few hundred terrorists are still holed up.
Its capture will nudge the eight-year-old war towards a new phase, with U.S. President Donald Trump having pledged to withdraw American troops.
A Reuters witness near the front lines at Baghouz on the Iraqi border saw dozens of trucks leaving the village and a spokesman for the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they were bringing out civilians.
Baghouz is the final scrap of ground left to Daesh in the Euphrates valley region that became its last major stronghold in Iraq and Syria after a series of catastrophic defeats in 2017.
In another development, Russian and Syrian coordination centers on returning refugees have managed to open two humanitarian corridors for thousands of displaced Syrians stranded in a camp near the Jordanian border to leave the site toward government-controlled areas.
"In accordance with the February 16 joint statement by the Russian and Syrian coordination centers on opening the humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of Syrians from the Rukban camp, two checkpoints at Jleb and Jabal al-Ghurab opened today,” the chief of Russia’s National Defense Control Center, Major General Mikhail Mizintsev, said in a statement on Tuesday.
He added that the Syrian refugees will be provided with voluntary, unimpeded and safe exit from the camp to places of their choice of residence within 24 hours.
The UN says about 45,000 people, mostly women and children, are trapped inside Rukban, where conditions are desperate. This is while Geneva-based international aid agency Doctors Without Borders has put the number there at some 60,000.
In October, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said people in Rukban had been without access to food and humanitarian aid for several months, highlighting that the tough situation was further complicated with a closed border by Jordan.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has warned that some 200 families are trapped in a shrinking area in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, which is controlled by Daesh Takfiri terrorists.
Many of the families in the village of Baghouz "continue to be subjected to intensified air and ground-based strikes by the U.S.-led coalition forces and their [Syrian Democratic Forces] SDF allies on the ground,” Bachelet said in a statement on Tuesday.
Militants with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) keep a position during an operation to expel Daesh from the Baghouz area in the eastern Syrian province of Dayr al-Zawr on February 14, 2019.
Its capture will nudge the eight-year-old war towards a new phase, with U.S. President Donald Trump having pledged to withdraw American troops.
A Reuters witness near the front lines at Baghouz on the Iraqi border saw dozens of trucks leaving the village and a spokesman for the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they were bringing out civilians.
Baghouz is the final scrap of ground left to Daesh in the Euphrates valley region that became its last major stronghold in Iraq and Syria after a series of catastrophic defeats in 2017.
In another development, Russian and Syrian coordination centers on returning refugees have managed to open two humanitarian corridors for thousands of displaced Syrians stranded in a camp near the Jordanian border to leave the site toward government-controlled areas.
"In accordance with the February 16 joint statement by the Russian and Syrian coordination centers on opening the humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of Syrians from the Rukban camp, two checkpoints at Jleb and Jabal al-Ghurab opened today,” the chief of Russia’s National Defense Control Center, Major General Mikhail Mizintsev, said in a statement on Tuesday.
He added that the Syrian refugees will be provided with voluntary, unimpeded and safe exit from the camp to places of their choice of residence within 24 hours.
The UN says about 45,000 people, mostly women and children, are trapped inside Rukban, where conditions are desperate. This is while Geneva-based international aid agency Doctors Without Borders has put the number there at some 60,000.
In October, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said people in Rukban had been without access to food and humanitarian aid for several months, highlighting that the tough situation was further complicated with a closed border by Jordan.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has warned that some 200 families are trapped in a shrinking area in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, which is controlled by Daesh Takfiri terrorists.
Many of the families in the village of Baghouz "continue to be subjected to intensified air and ground-based strikes by the U.S.-led coalition forces and their [Syrian Democratic Forces] SDF allies on the ground,” Bachelet said in a statement on Tuesday.
Militants with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) keep a position during an operation to expel Daesh from the Baghouz area in the eastern Syrian province of Dayr al-Zawr on February 14, 2019.