Agence France-Presse (AFP) published harrowing photos of near-starving civilians fleeing bombardment and fierce battles aimed at eliminating ISIS from its last pocket in eastern rural Deir Ezzor.
A woman told AFP correspondent that she took an arduous journey with her family from Aleppo to the town of al-Bagouz in Deir Ezzor province, ISIS’s last pocket. “I buried my daughter on our way out of al-Bagouz. Her sister is dying of cold,” she said.
An activist described the scene of people fleeing the town as distressing, while another activist said that those people neared death due to the intense fighting there.
Local media outlets said that hundreds of families had arrived at the Houl IDP camp in southern rural Hasakah from eastern rural Deir Ezzor.
Local sources said that 207 Syrian families comprising 706 people and 197 Iraqi families of 780 people as well as six families of ISIS militants arrived at the camp through the Subah crossing near the town of Shaddadi.
Thousands of civilians have been killed by years of fighting and aerial bombardments by the international coalition forces on populated areas. The international coalition has already admitted responsibility for many of civilian deaths. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Smart News Agency)
