{"id":18302,"date":"2018-10-13T12:25:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-13T12:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18302"},"modified":"2018-10-13T12:25:01","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T12:25:01","slug":"luban-downgraded-to-tropical-storm-but-omanis-warned-of-flash-foods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=18302","title":{"rendered":"Luban downgraded to tropical storm, but Omanis warned of flash foods"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT: Aid agencies on Friday warned of dire humanitarian consequences if a Russia-Turkey deal to avert a regime assault on Syria\u2019s last major opposition stronghold was not fully implemented within days.<\/p>\n

\nRegime ally Russia and opposition backer Turkey agreed last month to set up a buffer zone around the northwestern region of Idlib to separate jihadist and militants inside from regime fighters massing on its edges.<\/p>\n

\nUnder the accord, militants have until Monday to withdraw from the buffer zone semi-circling the region of some 3 million people, but have not yet shown any sign of moving.<\/p>\n

\nOn Friday, international aid groups working in Idlib warned that failure to implement the deal could spark renewed violence and trigger mass displacement.\"\"<\/p>\n

\nLocal partner organizations and \u201ccivilians receiving aid have expressed fears that violence could spiral out of control in the next few days if either the deal collapses or fighting escalates in areas not covered by it,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cEven a limited military offensive would displace hundreds of thousands of people,\u201d CARE International, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Mercy Corps and Save the Children said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\nNearly half of the people living in Idlib have fled from their homes in other parts of the war-torn country, according to the UN, and many already depend on aid.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIf this deal falls short and military operations start, many hundreds of thousands will struggle to get the help they will so badly need,\u201d warned Lorraine Bramwell, IRC\u2019s Syria country director.<\/p>\n

\nFor the agreement to be implemented, Idlib\u2019s dominant force, an alliance led by Al-Qaeda\u2019s former Syria affiliate, and other militants must withdraw from the planned buffer zone by Monday.<\/p>\n

\nBut the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) alliance has not yet officially responded to the deal, and a Britain-based war monitor said on Friday that no militant had withdrawn yet from the buffer zone.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere has been no withdrawal of any members of the jihadist factions with their light weapons,\u201d the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.<\/p>\n

\nAn AFP correspondent said that residents in the area received warning messages Friday on their mobile phones from the regime army.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cGet away from the fighters. Their fate is sealed and near,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cDon\u2019t allow the terrorists to take you as human shields,\u201d said another, addressed to residents of the planned buffer zone.<\/p>\n

\nHTS jihadists from the Turkestan Islamic Party and current Al-Qaeda outfit Hurras Al-Deen control more than two-thirds of the expected demilitarised zone.<\/p>\n

\nSeparately, sources said that Yarmouk camp in the Damascus suburbs has been emptied of its inhabitants and pounded to rubble in Syria\u2019s seven-year war.<\/p>\n

\nBut five months after regime forces expelled the last opposition fighters in the area, Assad troops now stand guard at the camp\u2019s entrance, wearing face masks to protect themselves against the dust billowing up into the air.<\/p>\n

\nOn a narrow street inside the camp where he grew up, Palestinian Mahmud Khaled has returned to help oversee bulldozers and diggers engaged in joint Palestinian-Syrian clean-up operations.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhen we first entered, we were horrified by what we saw,\u201d said the 56-year-old engineer, wearing a light grey and white checkered shirt.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cBut after we started the clean-up, it all started to look up,\u201d Khaled said.<\/p>\n

\nOff Yarmuk\u2019s main artery, recently cleared side streets are flanked by buildings ravaged by years of fighting.<\/p>\n

\nSome have been reduced to mountains of grey rubble and mangled rebar. In others, entire floors dangle dangerously downwards, their steel rods jutting out.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe have shifted 50,000 cubic meters of rubble and reopened all the main roads,\u201d Khaled said.<\/p>\n

\nBut \u201cit will be a while before families can come back,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\nAs Khaled surveyed the neighborhood, a yellow bulldozer spilled rubble into a large red truck behind him.<\/p>\n

\nTens of thousands have fled Yarmuk since Syria\u2019s conflict started in 2011 and regime forces imposed a crippling siege on the then opposition-held camp a year later.<\/p>\n

\nSince the latest round of fighting to expel Daesh ended in May, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said no residents have been allowed to return.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: Aid agencies on Friday warned of dire humanitarian consequences if a Russia-Turkey deal to avert a regime assault on Syria\u2019s last major opposition stronghold was not fully implemented within days. Regime ally Russia and opposition backer Turkey agreed last month to set up a buffer zone around the northwestern region of Idlib to separate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}