OMAR OILFIELD,Syria: As US-backed forces advanced, 22-year-old Dima Qatran buried one of hertwin babies, then picked up the other and fled the Islamic State group'scrumbling pocket in eastern Syria. Clutching her remaining 11-month-olddaughter, she joined hundreds escaping the last shreds of the extremist group's"caliphate" near the Iraqi border. She fled through the cold deserton foot towards territory held by US-backed fighters, where she boarded a truckto take her to a camp for displaced IS families further north.
"I hadtwins," Qatran told AFP on Friday, tears streaming down her face, at a pitstop along the way. "I buried one, and the second is dying. She hasdiarrhoea and keeps vomiting. I can't bear it. My daughter died of cold andhunger." The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are fighting to expel thelast IS fighters from a few hamlets in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor."We slept in the street for 11 days after my home was bombed" inBaghouz, a village on the front line, she said.
Qatran said shearrived in Baghouz with her husband's family a year ago after fleeing the townof Albukamal to the west, which was retaken from IS by Russia-backed regimeforces in late 2017. The young mother said all she wanted was to be reunitedwith her husband who works as a cook in Turkey, and claimed to have noaffiliation with IS. "I'm scared of them," she said.
'Just hunger'
Near the Omaroilfield, women and children - some of whom had faces ravaged by rashes -descended from the back of a dozen small trucks, caked in dust and visiblyexhausted as the SDF allowed a quick break. A mother dashed down from avehicle, rushing her two children out of sight to relieve their bladders, whileothers pleaded for food and drink, saying that with the bombardment and siege,they had not eaten for days. Infants screamed while their mothers did theirbest to soothe them.
For days,hundreds have been fleeing what remains of the so-called "Hajinpocket" east of the Euphrates River, SDF officials said. According to theBritain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor more than 8,000people have fled since Monday, including around 1,000 militants. Since earlyDecember, some 29,000 people have escaped the fighting, the Observatory said.
Sara Al-Sahar,32, paced around with her baby trying in vain to pacify him.
He's "hungryand sick," said the mother of two. "There's no food over there, justhunger," she said of areas under IS control. "Nothing - not evennappies." Sahar also insisted she had nothing to do with IS, a claim thatAFP could not immediately verify. "We walked for six hours" in thedesert before reaching SDF-controlled territory, she said.
'Is it far?'
Around 750 peoplereached SDF-held territory from IS-held territory on Friday, Mohammed SuleimanOthman, an official with the Syria Democratic Council said. They included 600civilians, mostly Iraqis related to IS fighters, he said. But 150 men weredetained on suspicion of belonging to IS, after screening near the frontline.Fourteen women and their children of various nationalities including fromRussia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Turkey were ferried off to a special centrefor questioning.
Inside thatcenter, women sat with their children in a large room. One was changing herbaby, with a nappy improvised from fabric and plastic bags. In a corner,20-year-old Mariam from Ukraine fed her baby before she wiped her face with herhands. "I need to rest before I can remember what happened to me,"she said, speaking in classical Arabic, reluctant to answer any questions.
Near the Omar oilfield, women asked how much longer before they reach the Al-Hol camp in thenortheastern province of Hasakeh. "Is it still far? We're so tired,"one of them said. Tayyeba, 54, said she escaped with her husband, but the SDFdetained him for questioning. "We fled as the frontlines started gettingcloser," she said, wrinkles visible under her black face veil.
Umm Baraa, 20,said: "The streets are full of people who can't find anywhere to sleep. Wewere running from one neighborhood to another." She said her husband - anIS fighter - died recently in an air strike. "We were all doing so well...If the frontline hadn't got closer, we wouldn't have left at all," shesaid of life under IS. "Now we don't know what awaits us." - AFP