BEIRUT: Daesh terrorists have evacuated their families from a Syrian town at the Turkish border near a city that they recently lost to US-backed militias, a monitor group said on Friday, a sign they may be preparing to face an attack there.
Last week’s capture by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of Manbij, 40km to their south, has left terrorists in Jarablus in danger of being cut off from the terror group’s main territorial possessions.
The town is located at the eastern edge of a Daesh salient stretching 33 miles (55km) along the Turkish border, and could be encircled by any SDF thrust northwards from its positions further to the west. SDF positions on the Euphrates already look directly across to Jarablus on the opposing bank.
More than 50 families of Daesh members and leaders arrived in the group’s stronghold of Raqqa from Jarablus and the larger town of Al-Bab, between Manbij and Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said.
Separately, a senior Syrian rebel source told Reuters that Daesh was moving personnel out of Jarablus.
Meanwhile, two Syrian girls aged eight months and five years drowned along with four other people when a wooden boat carrying war refugees trying to make it to Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, a humanitarian rescue group said on Friday.
The bodies were recovered about 22 nautical miles from Libya on Thursday when the small vessel packed with 27 Syrians flipped over and sank, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) humanitarian group said.
The bodies of two women and one man were also recovered, while another person who was on the boat was not found, MOAS reported. MOAS operates two rescue boats in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya.
Separately, Libyan pro-government forces said they seized control Tuesday of another central district of Sirte as they tried to flush out the last Daesh elements in the coastal city.
Dozens of US airstrikes this month have helped to weaken Daesh’s hold on Sirte. Backed by tanks and mortar fire, forces loyal to Libya’s Government of National Accord retook an area of central Sirte known as District Two, military officials said.
Last week’s capture by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of Manbij, 40km to their south, has left terrorists in Jarablus in danger of being cut off from the terror group’s main territorial possessions.
The town is located at the eastern edge of a Daesh salient stretching 33 miles (55km) along the Turkish border, and could be encircled by any SDF thrust northwards from its positions further to the west. SDF positions on the Euphrates already look directly across to Jarablus on the opposing bank.
More than 50 families of Daesh members and leaders arrived in the group’s stronghold of Raqqa from Jarablus and the larger town of Al-Bab, between Manbij and Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said.
Separately, a senior Syrian rebel source told Reuters that Daesh was moving personnel out of Jarablus.
Meanwhile, two Syrian girls aged eight months and five years drowned along with four other people when a wooden boat carrying war refugees trying to make it to Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, a humanitarian rescue group said on Friday.
The bodies were recovered about 22 nautical miles from Libya on Thursday when the small vessel packed with 27 Syrians flipped over and sank, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) humanitarian group said.
The bodies of two women and one man were also recovered, while another person who was on the boat was not found, MOAS reported. MOAS operates two rescue boats in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya.
Separately, Libyan pro-government forces said they seized control Tuesday of another central district of Sirte as they tried to flush out the last Daesh elements in the coastal city.
Dozens of US airstrikes this month have helped to weaken Daesh’s hold on Sirte. Backed by tanks and mortar fire, forces loyal to Libya’s Government of National Accord retook an area of central Sirte known as District Two, military officials said.
