OMAR OIL FIELD:US-backed Syrian forces warned Sunday they were struggling to cope with anoutpouring of foreigners from the Islamic State group's imploding"caliphate", urging governments to take responsibility for theircitizens. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have evacuated nearly 5,000men, women and children from the jihadist redoubt since Wednesday, movingcloser to retaking the last sliver of territory under IS control.
"The numbersof foreign fighters and their relatives that we are holding is increasingdrastically," Kurdish foreign affairs official Abdel Karim Omar said."Our current infrastructure can't handle the mass influx", he said.Syria's Kurds have repeatedly called on foreign countries to repatriate theircitizens, but most have been reluctant to allow battle-hardened jihadists andtheir relatives back home due to security concerns.
At the height ofits rule, IS imposed its brutal interpretation of Islamic law across territorystraddling Syria and Iraq that was roughly the size of the United Kingdom. Butmore than four years after IS declared a cross-border "caliphate",the jihadists have lost all but a tiny patch of land in the village of Baghouznear the Iraqi border.
After years offighting IS, Syria's Kurds say they hold hundreds of suspected IS fighters andtheir relatives. "As thousands of foreigners flee Daesh's crumblingcaliphate, the burden which is already too heavy for us to handle is getting evenheavier," SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said on Twitter late Saturday, usingan Arabic acronym for IS.
"This willremain as the biggest challenge awaiting us unless governments take action andfulfil their responsibilities for their citizens," he said. No evacuationswere reported from the enclave on Saturday, but the two batches that left onWednesday and Friday included Europeans, Iraqis and nationals of former Sovietcountries, according to the SDF.
Crammed prisons
Around 46,000people, including a large number of foreigners, have streamed out of IS'sshrinking territory since early December, according to the Syrian Observatoryfor Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. While civilians are truckednorth to Kurdish-run camps for the displaced, suspected jihadists are sent toSDF-controlled prisons. Omar said SDF "detention centres can't accommodateall the fighters" coming out of the last IS pocket.
The evacuation ofmen, 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."There is a lot of pressure on us, especially in Al Hol, where in additionto the relatives of IS fighters you have a large displaced population,"Omar said.
On Thursday, nearly2,500 evacuees arrived at Al Hol, compounding already dire conditions insidethe crammed settlement, the UN's humanitarian coordination office OCHA said."Thousands more are expected in coming hours/days at Al-Hol camp, puttinga further strain on basic services," it tweeted Friday. "This sudden influx presents hugechallenges to the response-additional tents, non-food items, water andsanitation and health supplies are urgently needed." The InternationalRescue Committee on Friday said 69 people, mostly children, had died on the wayto Al-Hol, or shortly after arriving in past weeks.
Security concerns
The battle forBaghouz is now the only live front in Syria's war, which has killed more than360,000 people and displaced millions since 2011. The SDF say they are tryingto evacuate remaining civilians through a corridor before pressing on with abattle to crush the jihadists unless holdout fighters surrender. Some 2,000people are believed to remain inside Baghouz, including foreigners, accordingto the US-backed force.
Many Europeancountries are now confronted with the dilemma of whether to bring back theircitizens who travelled to join the group and prosecute them at home, or barthem from entry over security concerns. On Friday, the family of Shamima Begum,19, said it would challenge the British government's decision to revoke hercitizenship. Begum, who travelled to Syria in 2015 aged just 15, faced beingleft stateless after Britain revoked her citizenship, and Bangladesh, where herparents are from, said it did not want her. On Thursday, the father of HodaMuthana, 24, sued to bring her home after President Donald Trump'sadministration declared she was not a US citizen. - AFP