{"id":33118,"date":"2019-02-25T00:41:04","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T00:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33118"},"modified":"2019-02-25T00:41:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T00:41:04","slug":"exodus-from-last-daesh-enclave-overwhelms-syria-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33118","title":{"rendered":"Exodus from last Daesh enclave overwhelms Syria force"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nOMAR OIL FIELD, Syria: US-backed Syrian forces warned on Sunday they were struggling to cope with an outpouring of foreigners from Daesh\u2019s imploding reign, urging governments to take responsibility for their citizens.<\/p>\n

\nThe Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have evacuated nearly 5,000 men, women and children from the militant redoubt since Wednesday, moving closer to retaking the last sliver of territory under Daesh control.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe numbers of foreign fighters and their relatives that we are holding is increasing drastically,\u201d Kurdish foreign affairs official Abdel Karim Omar told AFP.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur current infrastructure can\u2019t handle the mass influx,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nSyria\u2019s Kurds have repeatedly called on foreign countries to repatriate their citizens, but most have been reluctant to allow battle-hardened militants and their relatives back home due to security concerns.<\/p>\n

\nBut more than four years after Daesh declared a cross-border proto-state, the militants have lost all but a tiny patch of land in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border.<\/p>\n

\nAfter years of fighting Daesh, Syria\u2019s Kurds say they hold hundreds of suspected Daesh fighters and their relatives.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAs thousands of foreigners flee Daesh\u2019s crumbling caliphate, the burden which is already too heavy for us to handle is getting even heavier,\u201d SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said on Twitter late Saturday.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis will remain as the biggest challenge awaiting us unless governments take action and fulfill their responsibilities for their citizens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nNo evacuations were reported from the enclave on Saturday, but the two batches that left on Wednesday and Friday included Europeans, Iraqis and nationals of former Soviet countries, according to the SDF.<\/p>\n

\nAround 46,000 people, including a large number of foreigners, have streamed out of Daesh\u2019s shrinking territory since early December, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.<\/p>\n

\nWhile civilians are trucked north to Kurdish-run camps for the displaced, suspected militants are sent to SDF-controlled prisons.<\/p>\n

\nOmar said SDF \u201cdetention centers can\u2019t accommodate all the fighters\u201d coming out of the last Daesh pocket.<\/p>\n

\nThe evacuation of men, women and children has put a strain on Kurdish-run camps for the displaced, especially the Al Hol camp, which now shelters more than 40,000 people.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere is a lot of pressure on us, especially in Al Hol, where in addition to the relatives of IS fighters you have a large displaced population,\u201d Omar said.<\/p>\n

\nOn Thursday, nearly 2,500 evacuees arrived at Al Hol, compounding already dire conditions inside the crammed settlement, the UN\u2019s humanitarian coordination office OCHA said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThousands more are expected in coming hours\/days at Al-Hol camp, putting a further strain on basic services,\u201d it tweeted Friday.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis sudden influx presents huge challenges to the response \u2014 additional tents, non-food items, water and sanitation and health supplies are urgently needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe International Rescue Committee on Friday said 69 people, mostly children, had died on the way to Al-Hol, or shortly after arriving in past weeks.<\/p>\n

\nThe battle for Baghouz is now the only live front in Syria\u2019s war, which has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since 2011.<\/p>\n

\nThe SDF say they are trying to evacuate remaining civilians through a corridor before pressing on with a battle to crush the militants unless holdout fighters surrender.<\/p>\n

\nSome 2,000 people are believed to remain inside Baghouz, including foreigners, according to the US-backed force.<\/p>\n

\nMany European countries are now confronted with the dilemma of whether to bring back their citizens who traveled to join the group and prosecute them at home, or bar them from entry over security concerns.<\/p>\n

\nOn Friday, the family of Shamima Begum, 19, said it would challenge the British government\u2019s decision to revoke her citizenship.<\/p>\n

\nBegum, who traveled to Syria in 2015 aged just 15, faced being left stateless after Britain revoked her citizenship, and Bangladesh, where her parents are from, said it did not want her.<\/p>\n

\nOn Thursday, the father of Hoda Muthana, 24, sued to bring her home after President Donald Trump\u2019s administration declared she was not a US citizen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OMAR OIL FIELD, Syria: US-backed Syrian forces warned on Sunday they were struggling to cope with an outpouring of foreigners from Daesh\u2019s imploding reign, urging governments to take responsibility for their citizens. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have evacuated nearly 5,000 men, women and children from the militant redoubt since Wednesday, moving closer to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":33119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33118","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\/33118","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=33118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}