{"id":33888,"date":"2019-03-03T02:23:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T02:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33888"},"modified":"2019-03-03T02:23:26","modified_gmt":"2019-03-03T02:23:26","slug":"algerias-bouteflika-names-director-for-his-campaign-to-seek-a-fifth-presidential-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=33888","title":{"rendered":"Algeria\u2019s Bouteflika names director for his campaign to seek a fifth presidential term"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nDEIR EZZOR, Syria: Hareth Najem fled Daesh\u2019s last enclave in eastern Syria wounded and alone. The Iraqi orphan\u2019s family had died two years earlier in airstrikes across the border in Al-Qaim region.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI had two brothers and a sister. They all died, and then I was by myself,\u201d Hareth told Reuters, tears filling his eyes. \u201cMy little sister, I loved her a lot. I used to take her with me to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nLying in a cattle truck beside another injured boy at a desert transit point for US-backed forces, he huddled under a blanket. His face was covered in dirt and the side of his head wrapped with bandages covering wounds incurred days earlier.<\/p>\n

\nHareth was 11 years old when Daesh carved out its proto-state in Iraq and Syria, killing thousands of civilians and attracting an array of enemies that have fought from the air and on the ground to uproot the militants.<\/p>\n

\nNow 16, he was among the children swept up this week in the civilian evacuation of Baghouz, the last shred of land under the militants\u2019 control where they are on the brink of defeat at the hands of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).<\/p>\n

\nSome of the children are foreigners whose parents brought them to be raised under Daesh rule, or child fighters conscripted into what the group dubbed \u201ccubs of the caliphate.\u201d Others, including members of the Yazidi minority, were enslaved by the militants.<\/p>\n

\nMany have seen their parents die in the fighting or be detained by rival forces. As Daesh faces territorial defeat, their fate remains uncertain. The SDF investigates all men and teenage boys arriving from Baghouz to determine possible Daesh links.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u2018These kids have nobody\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nAround 20 children crossed the frontline on their own this week, including Iraqis, Syrians, Turks and Indonesians, said SDF commander Adnan Afrin. The fathers of some were identified as Daesh militants and arrested immediately.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThese kids have nobody. They need somebody to take care of them, to provide mental health support,\u201d said Afrin, adding that some had gone hungry for a long time. The SDF plans to hand over the children to aid groups, he said.<\/p>\n

\nHareth said his family had been running a market stall when Daesh overran their town and they had no links to the group.<\/p>\n

\nAfter his family was killed in an aerial bombardment, he crossed into Syria with other Iraqis who feared Shiite militias advancing against Daesh would take revenge on them \u2014 a fear that other Iraqis have cited as their reason for entering Daesh-held Syria.<\/p>\n

\nHareth said he tried to avoid the militants and denies attending their schools or receiving military training. Their morality police would sometimes arrest and whip him.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThey gave speeches at the mosques, jihad and whatnot,\u201d he said. \u201cI was scared of them. My whole family died because of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nWhen he reached Baghouz, he worked in a field in return for a room to sleep in. He tried saving enough money to go home, but said the militants stopped him.<\/p>\n

\nHareth was wounded last week when a shell fell near where he was standing along the Euphrates River, injuring his ear, hand and stomach. He wants to get medical care and return to relatives still in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI want to go look for them … When I get better and my body recovers, when I can walk,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to go back, to become a young man again, to build a future again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DEIR EZZOR, Syria: Hareth Najem fled Daesh\u2019s last enclave in eastern Syria wounded and alone. The Iraqi orphan\u2019s family had died two years earlier in airstrikes across the border in Al-Qaim region. \u201cI had two brothers and a sister. They all died, and then I was by myself,\u201d Hareth told Reuters, tears filling his eyes.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":33889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33888","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\/33888","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=33888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}