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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 2 May 2018

Airstrikes kill 23 in IS-held territory in Syria

By SARAH EL DEEB Yarmouk, while about 5,000
BEIRUT (AP) — Airstrikes people in Foua and Kfraya,
killed at least 23 civilians on two northwestern villages
Tuesday in one of the last besieged by insurgents, will
pockets of Islamic State- be allowed to relocate to
controlled territory in Syria, government-held areas.
according to Syrian state Al-Ikhbariya said nearly
media and an opposition- 20 wounded or ill from the
linked monitoring group, two besieged villages were
as U.S.-backed forces in evacuated Tuesday. But
the area announced they the evacuation has ap-
have resumed their cam- parently stalled amid se-
paign against the extrem- curity concerns, with the
ists. residents asking that they
The Britain-based Syrian Ob- all be evacuated together
servatory for Human Rights instead of in batches.
said it was not clear if the The Observatory said five
airstrikes in the Hassakeh buses carrying around 200
province were carried out insurgents from Yarmouk
by the U.S.-led coalition or arrived at the handover
the Iraqi air force. It said the area south of Aleppo.
strikes killed 10 children, six The U.N. has warned of
women and seven elderly “catastrophic conse-
people. The state-run Syr- quences” for the remaining
ian News Agency said 25 In this photo released on Monday, April 30, 2018 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian inhabitants of Yarmouk as
government forces gather in front of a bus carrying al-Qaida-linked fighters during an evacuation
civilians were killed in the from the Palestinian refugee camp 0f Yarmouk, near Damascus, Syria. the fighting continues.
airstrikes south of the town Associated Press The camp was established
of Shadadi, blaming the in 1957 for Palestinians who
U.S-led coalition. once and for all." der. eas around the capital fled the 1948 war with Is-
The strikes took place in The SDF had redeployed Elsewhere in Syria on Tues- that have been besieged rael, and later evolved into
an area where the U.S.- hundreds of its forces to day, more than three doz- for years and subjected to a densely populated urban
backed and Kurdish-led western Syria after Turk- en Syrians held for years by heavy bombardment by neighborhood that was
Syrian Democratic Forces ish troops attacked the al-Qaida-linked insurgents government forces. The home to tens of thousands
are battling IS. Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in the country's northwest U.N. and rights groups have of Palestinians and Syrians.
In an email to The Associ- earlier this year, effectively were released as part of criticized the deals, saying It has seen heavy fighting
ated Press, the U.S-led co- putting operations against a deal to hand over areas they amount to forced dis- since the early days of the
alition said initial reports IS on hold. around Damascus to the placement. seven-year-old civil war,
suggest there were no co- In a statement Tuesday, the government, state media The latest deal concerns and IS pushed into the dis-
alition airstrikes in the area U.S-led coalition praised reported. Yarmouk, a Palestinian trict in 2015.
where the deadly airstrikes the SDF's "focus" on fight- State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV refugee camp that was “Yarmouk and its inhabit-
are said to have taken ing IS, calling it critical to broadcast images of the a built-up residential area ants have endured inde-
place. achieving a "lasting defeat" released men, women, chil- before the civil war. IS mili- scribable pain and suffer-
Lelwa Abdullah, an SDF of the extremist group. dren, who arrived by bus at tants still control parts of the ing over years of conflict,”
spokeswoman in the ad- Abdullah said IS attacks a government-controlled camp and a neighboring Pierre Krähenbühl, the head
jacent Deir el-Zour prov- have increased in recent checkpoint in Aleppo prov- area, where they are bat- of the U.N. agency for Pal-
ince, said Tuesday the final weeks in parts of eastern ince. Many were in tears, tling government forces. estinian refugees, said last
phase of a large operation Syria near the border with and they could be seen The 42 people freed on week. The latest fighting
against IS in eastern Syria Iraq as the extremist group kissing and hugging Syrian Tuesday are the first batch has displaced around 5,000
has begun. She said the seeks to regroup. She said soldiers. The captives had of more than 80 to be re- civilians from Yarmouk into
SDF will "liberate those ar- the clearing operations will been held by the insurgents leased. Under the deal, the neighboring area of
eas and secure the Syrian- take place with the help of in northern Syria since 2015. fighters from the al-Qaida- Yalda, the U.N. said. It’s not
Iraqi border and end the IS the U.S.-led coalition and It is the latest in a series of linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham clear how many civilians re-
presence in eastern Syria Iraqi forces across the bor- evacuation deals for ar- group will withdraw from main in Yarmouk.q