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WORLD NEWS Thursday 16 February 2017

Jordan commander: IS expands hold in border camp for Syrians

KHETAM MALKAWI Wednesday, U.N. agencies
OMAR AKOUR in Jordan said conditions
Associated Press still “present a survival chal-
JORDAN-SYRIA BORDER lenge,” while acknowledg-
(AP) — Armed Islamic State ing the Jordanian military’s
extremists are expanding efforts to coordinate aid
their influence in a sprawl- shipments.
ing camp for displaced “Delivery of humanitarian
Syrians on Jordan’s border, aid experienced serious
posing a growing threat delays and interruptions
to the U.S.-allied kingdom, due to logistical and se-
a senior Jordanian military curity constraints over the
commander said. past months,” the state-
Brig. Gen. Sami Kafawin, ment said.
chief of Jordan’s border “Only one distribution cy-
forces, spoke to The Asso- cle of a month’s worth of
ciated Press during a tour food rations and essential
of the remote desert area, items, including blankets,
just west of where Jordan, warm clothes and plastic
Syria and Iraq meet. sheeting, was made pos-
The Islamic State group sible to those living at the
seized parts of Syria and berm between November
Iraq in 2014, and still holds A Jordanian soldier stands at the north eastern border with Syria, close to the informal Rukban 2016 and January 2017.”
territory there, including camp. The commander of Jordan’s border guards says Islamic State extremists are expanding The statement said water
areas abutting Jordan, their influence in the sprawling border camp for tens of thousands of displaced Syrians, posing a has been delivered regu-
despite recent military set- growing threat to the U.S.-allied kingdom. (AP Photo/ Raad Adayleh) larly and that U.N. health
backs. services were able to pro-
A flight in a Jordanian mili- that killed seven Jordanian disease. west of Rukban, while U.N. vide life-saving care, with
tary helicopter on Tuesday border guards. Late last year, after months mobile health clinics con- the most serious cases re-
offered a view of the Ruk- The closure disrupted what of negotiations, U.N.-led sisting of several trailers ferred to Jordan for further
ban camp, an expanse of until then had been fair- aid groups and Jordani- were established on Jor- treatment.
tents and makeshift shel- ly regular distributions of an officials worked out a danian territory, near the On Tuesday, an AP team
ters housing tens of thou- food and water by Jordan- new arrangement for the southernmost berm. visited one of the health
sands of stranded Syrians. based international aid camps, located between Aid officials said tribal lead- clinics, where pregnant
Conditions in Rukban and agencies. two low miles-long mounds ers help organize the distri- women and young chil-
the smaller Hadalat camp In recent months, there of earth, or berms, that butions, despite concerns dren were receiving treat-
deteriorated sharply after had been mounting reports straddle the Syrian-Jordani- by aid agencies that this ment. Patients were trans-
Jordan sealed its border of lack of clean water, the an border. will lead to unfair allotments ported from Rukban to the
in June, following a cross- rise of malnutrition among A food distribution center and black marketeering. clinic by ambulance after
border IS car bomb attack children and the spread of was set up several miles In a joint statement on security vetting.q

UN temporarily pausing aid to eastern Mosul due to security

BRAM JANSSEN until security improves, it sul, across from the Tigris Friday, killing four people. cording to a police officer
Associated Press will be difficult for us to pro- River, which runs through A clinic in Mosul’s Zahra and a medical official. They
HASSAN SHAM CAMP, Iraq vide assistance.” She spoke the heart of Iraq’s second neighborhood said it con- spoke on condition of ano-
(AP) — The United Nations during a visit to a camp for largest city. Iraqi forces are tinues to receive dozens nymity because they were
said Wednesday it was Iraqis displaced from Mosul moving into position ahead of wounded civilians ev- not authorized to brief re-
temporarily pausing aid on Wednesday. of an anticipated assault ery day from mortar and IS porters.
operations to neighbor- Iraq declared Mosul’s east- on Mosul’s western half. drone attacks. IS captured Mosul in the
hoods in the eastern half ern half “fully liberated” last “We have every confi- Thousands of people living summer of 2014 when it
of the Iraqi city of Mosul as month, and a semblance dence that the authori- in eastern Mosul lack ac- swept across much of
attacks by the Islamic State of normalcy returned to ties will provide security. cess to drinking water and northern and central Iraq.
group continue to inflict many areas, with schools, As soon as it improves, the fuel for cooking and heat- The militants have suffered
heavy civilian casualties shops and restaurants re- United Nations agencies ing. several battlefield defeats
there. opening. But some neigh- will be there to deliver assis- Elsewhere in Iraq on since then, but have con-
Lise Grande, the U.N. Hu- borhoods continue to be tance,” Grande said. Wednesday, a car bomb tinued to carry out large
manitarian Coordinator for hit by insurgent attacks. An IS suicide bomber struck killed at least 17 people attacks in Baghdad and
Iraq, said U.N. agencies The IS group is still firmly a recently reopened res- and wounded 45 others in other areas far from the
“made the decision that in control of western Mo- taurant in eastern Mosul on the capital, Baghdad, ac- front lines.q