Page 9 - Aruba Today
P. 9
WORLD NEWS 9
Tuesday 5 April 2016
Destruction, razed monastery
left behind by IS in Syria town
ALBERT AJI town of Palmyra from IS, Elite counter terrorism forces escort people fleeing their homes during clashes between Iraqi se-
Associated Press Syrian troops and their curity forces and the Islamic State group in Hit, 85 miles (140 kilometers) west of Baghdad, Iraq,
QARYATAIN, Syria (AP) allies recaptured Qarya- Monday, April 4, 2016. Families, many with small children and elderly relatives say they walked
— Syrian troops fired their tain. for hours Monday through desert littered with roadside bombs to escape airstrikes and clashes.
guns in celebration amid
smoldering buildings in- Aided by Russian air- (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
side the town of Qarya- strikes, the advance dealt
tain on Monday, hours af- yet another setback to IS, Iraqi forces enter IS-held town of Hit
ter recapturing it from re- depriving the extremists
treating Islamic State mili- of a main base in central SUSANNAH GEORGE Iraqi forces began escort- tory before their assault, in-
tants who had abducted Syria that could eventu- HIT, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi forces ing families out of Hit in the
and terrorized dozens of ally be used by govern- have entered the town of early morning Monday. structed families not to stray
its Christian residents. ment forces to launch Hit, a week after launching Azha Hadel and her three
An Associated Press crew attacks on IS-held areas an operation to retake the young children walked for from the tire marks to avoid
was among the first jour- near the Iraqi border. western town from Islamic five hours from her neigh-
nalists to enter the town Soldiers were visibly State group fighters, com- borhood in northern Hit to explosives. Piles of rocks
and witnessed the de- buoyed Monday by their manders at the scene said the city’s outskirts, where
struction wrought on successive battlefield vic- Monday. they were loaded into and scrap metal marked
the once-thriving Chris- tories. Iraq’s elite counterterror- open trucks by Iraqi secu-
tian community and its “We will soon liberate all ism forces, who are leading rity forces. unexploded bombs along
fifth-century monastery, of Syria from the merce- the offensive, said they are “Honestly we have no
which was bulldozed by naries of the Gulf and Er- clearing IS fighters from Hit’s idea where we are going,” the path.
the extremist group last dogan,” said one soldier, northern neighborhoods as Hadel said, her and her
summer. referring to Gulf countries they push in toward the children’s faces sunburned At one turn, the shell of a
Once a cherished pil- and the Turkish leader town center. from the long day outdoors.
grimage site, much of the who have been strong Iraqi and coalition officials “We want to go anywhere, burned Humvee was left
St. Elian monastery had supporters of the rebels say Hit — which lies along anywhere that’s safe.” Iraqi
been reduced to a pile fighting to topple Presi- the Euphrates river valley in counterterrorism forces at by the roadside. The ve-
of stones. dent Bashar Assad. Iraq’s vast Anbar province the scene said the families
Escorted by the Syr- Qaryatain lies midway — is strategically important were being brought to a hicle had been hit with an
ian government, the AP between Palmyra and as it sits along an IS supply nearby camp.
crew was allowed to the capital, Damascus, line that links the extremist Behind Hadel, black smoke IS rocket the night before.
venture only about three and was once home to militants in Iraq to those in rose from Hit as buildings
kilometers (1½ miles) in- a sizeable Christian pop- Syria. and vehicles hit by airstrikes The attack killed two Iraqi
side Qaryatain, located ulation. Before IS took it Thousands of civilians burned. Saha, Hadel’s
125 kilometers (75 miles) over last August, it had fled Hit as Iraqi troops ad- 12-year-old daughter, put soldiers and wounded four
northeast of Damascus, a mixed population of vanced under cover of her hands over her ears
because army experts around 40,000 Sunni Mus- heavy airstrikes and artil- and smiled meekly as an others Sunday night, ac-
were still clearing explo- lims and Christians, as well lery fire. Families, many with explosion rang out in the
sives and mines left by as thousands of internally small children and elderly distance. cording to Gen. Abdul
the group. displaced people who relatives, said they had Hundreds more civilians
Black smoke billowed had fled from the nearby walked for hours through were slowly walking out of Ghani al-Asadi, the head
from the western side of city of Homs. desert littered with road- the town by the evening.
town where skirmishes As it came under militant side bombs to escape the Iraqi troops, who had spent of Iraq’s counterterrorism
continued. Near the cen- attack, many of the Chris- violence. hours clearing the terri-
tral square, some resi- tians fled. More than 200 forces.
dential and government residents, mostly Chris-
buildings were complete- tians, were abducted by A few meters up the road,
ly destroyed, their top the extremists, including
floors flattened. a Syrian priest, the Rev. two bodies of IS fighters lay
Others had gaping holes Jack Murad, who was
where they had taken di- held by the extremists for unburied. They had been
rect artillery hits or were three months.
pock-marked by gun- During the eight months shot Sunday attempting to
fire. Electricity poles and that Qaryatain was under
cables were broken and IS control, some Christians carry out a suicide attack
shredded; a snapped were released and others
tree hung to one side. were made to sign pledg- on the advancing Iraqi
On Sunday, a week after es to pay a tax imposed
taking back the historic on non-Muslims. Some convoy, according to Iraqi
have simply vanished.
commanders at the scene.
Iraq’s counterterrorism
forces estimate more than
20,000 civilians remain
trapped inside Hit. The
large number of people in
such a small area is making
it difficult to quickly clear
territory with airstrikes, ac-
cording to al-Asadi.
