Hundreds of militants belonging to the Islamic State (IS) group and their families have surrendered as they left the group’s last enclave in eastern Syria, a spokesperson for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Tuesday.
Mostafa Bali, a spokesperson of the SDF, tweeted that the forces have evacuated about 3,500 people from the group’s pocket Baghouz in eastern Syria, through the humanitarian corridor established by the Kurdish forces.
Bali added that several car bombs were destroyed by coalition airstrikes during the last two days of the battle in Baghouz. “The SDF made a remarkable progress since yesterday evening, and recaptured many positions from ISIS,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Syrian army announced launching airstrikes targeting extremists in the middle of Syria.
Thousands of civilians and IS fighters have fled from Baghouz to the Al-Hol camp in north-eastern Syria. The camp’s weak and fragile services are on the brink of collapse according to a Red Cross official.
The Permanent Observer and the Head of Delegation for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Robert Mardini, said that the population in the camp has risen from 34,000 at the beginning of December to 45,000 now.
He added that those who come out of Baghouz are sick, injured, tired, and afraid, while the situation at the camp is overwhelming.
Last week, the UN announced that at least 84 people, two-thirds of them young children, have died since December on their way to Al-Hol camp.
Jens Laerke, the spokesperson of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that the camp now holds at least 45,000 people many of them had arrived while exhausted, hungry, and sick.
