IS families escape from camp in Syria as fight escalates

DPA, 13TH OCTOBER, 2019 - Hundreds of family members linked to Islamic State militants Sunday escaped from a camp in northern Syria where fighting between Kurdish militias and Turkish backed rebels is escalating, Kurdish officials and a war monitor reported.

About 785 foreigners affiliated to Islamic State have escaped from the Ain Issa camp, near the northern city of al-raqqa, a Kurdish autonomous administration in north-eastern Syria said.

“The escape comes after shelling by [Turkish-allied] mercenaries hit the camp. This represents support for the resurgence of Daesh,” the Kurdish authority said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Turkey started Wednesday a military campaign, saying it is targeting Islamic State extremists and Kurdish militias.

Ankara considers the Kurdish militias to be linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’

About 785 foreigners affiliated to Islamic State have escaped from the Ain Issa camp, near the northern city of al-raqqa

Party (PKK), which is waging an insurgency within the country.

Thousands of Islamic State families have been held in the Ain Issa camp that the Kurdishled Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) set up in 2016.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported that an unspecified number of Islamic State family members fled the camp after Kurdish guards abandoned the site due to nearby fighting.

Residents in the area told dpa that some of the escapees were going to a nearby countryside while others were heading to al-raqqa, a one-time stronghold of Islamic State.