63,500 refugees suffer in battered camp in northeastern Syria: watchdog

Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-10 01:18:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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DAMASCUS, March 9 (Xinhua) -- A total of 63,500 refugees, most of whom are the Islamic State (IS) militants and their families fleeing the last IS-held areas in eastern Syria, are living in the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, a war monitor reported Saturday.

The refugees are mostly non-Syrians either from Iraq or Europe, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Deaths are being reported on a daily basis among the refugees who are suffering from various illnesses as a result of the bad conditions they lived through in IS-held areas and the lack of medical care in the al-Hol camp, which is run by the Kurdish militia in al-Hasakah Province.

The watchdog said the camp is enough only for 10,000 people, adding that most of the deaths are occurring to infants and children.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is besieging the IS remnants in the farmlands of the town of Baghouz in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour.

The Observatory, however, said the SDF has postponed its last push against the IS in Baghouz as the terror-labelled group is holding prisoners from the SDF.

The SDF, with the backing of the U.S.-led coalition, has been carrying out a crushing offensive against the IS in eastern Syria since last September.

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