Up to 380,000 people have fled their towns and villages in Deir Ezzor due to the intensifying aerial bombardment and battles between the Russian-backed Assad regime forces and ISIS as well as between ISIS and the US-backed militias of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Omar Abu Laila, director of Deir Ezzor 24 media campaign told Smart News Network that “over 180,000 people, mostly children and women, fled their homes in the ISIS-held areas in Deir Ezzor to areas under the control of SDF militias in the provinces of Raqqa and Hassaka in the month of September alone.”
At least 200,000 people were forced to leave the town of Mayadeen in eastern rural Deir Ezzor to nearby villages, Abu Laila added. Only two percent of the population remained in the town as the daily aerial bombardment causes mounting causalities among civilians.
Abu Laila pointed out that about 100,000 people of those fled western rural Deir Ezzor to towns and villages in other areas under the control of ISIS and to areas under the control of SDF militias east of the Euphrates River.
Activists said that at least 310 civilians were killed as a result of intensifying aerial bombardment and battles in the province of Deir Ezzor in September. Russian and Assad regime air forces have stepped up airstrikes on the ISIS-held areas in recent months. An intensification of fighting between regime forces and ISIS as well as between ISIS and SDF militias have led to the death of hundreds of civilians in Deir Ezzor, most of them women and children.
In a press release issued on Monday, the Syrian Coalition condemned the attacks on civilians in Deir Ezzor. Deir Ezzor provincial council called on the United Nations, the Secretariat of the UN Human Rights Council, and the leadership of the International anti-ISIS Coalition to shoulder their legal and moral responsibilities to protect civilians as it stressed the need to take adequate precautions to protect and spare civilians in the province. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
