Syrian Kurds close road to Efrin Canton in response to Sheikh Maqsoud shelling
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Syrian Kurdish authorities have prevented fleeing Syrians from entering their northwestern canton of Efrin because Aleppo’s Kurdish neighbourhood is under continuous bombardment, a UN agency has said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Tuesday that thousands of Syrian civilians trying to flee an Islamic State (ISIS) advance in northern Syria were denied entry to Efrin Canton in Syria’s northwest. This is because the Syrian Kurds are being continuously shelled by Islamist militant groups like Jabhat al-Nusra.
The shelling led Kurdish authorities to close roads connecting Efrin to the nearby towns of Azaz and Mare’a. ISIS has managed to encircle Mare’a and is getting closer to Azaz.
The closure of the Mare’a to Efrin road, the OCHA said, has cut off at least 7,000 civilians fleeing ISIS’s advance.
Opposition forces in Azaz have also said they will not give entry to any more displaced Syrians fleeing from ISIS-held parts of Syria over fears that there may be ISIS infiltrators among them.
The Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) attempted to force Islamist militants from Azaz last February but were prevented from doing so by cross-border Turkish artillery fire.
Kurds in Sheikh Maqsoud – a neighbourhood of approximately 30,000 civilians – have been under relentless, bombardment by Islamist militants for months now. On Sunday, the YPG announced that they were closing the road to Efrin and that they would “strongly respond” to the “hostile attitude” of those bombarding Sheikh Maqsoud.
An Amnesty International investigation carried out this May found that the Jaish al-Fatah coalition of Islamist groups may have carried out indiscriminate attacks on civilian homes, markets and mosques in Sheikh Maqsoud using chemical weapons.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Tuesday that thousands of Syrian civilians trying to flee an Islamic State (ISIS) advance in northern Syria were denied entry to Efrin Canton in Syria’s northwest. This is because the Syrian Kurds are being continuously shelled by Islamist militant groups like Jabhat al-Nusra.
The shelling led Kurdish authorities to close roads connecting Efrin to the nearby towns of Azaz and Mare’a. ISIS has managed to encircle Mare’a and is getting closer to Azaz.
The closure of the Mare’a to Efrin road, the OCHA said, has cut off at least 7,000 civilians fleeing ISIS’s advance.
Opposition forces in Azaz have also said they will not give entry to any more displaced Syrians fleeing from ISIS-held parts of Syria over fears that there may be ISIS infiltrators among them.
The Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) attempted to force Islamist militants from Azaz last February but were prevented from doing so by cross-border Turkish artillery fire.
Kurds in Sheikh Maqsoud – a neighbourhood of approximately 30,000 civilians – have been under relentless, bombardment by Islamist militants for months now. On Sunday, the YPG announced that they were closing the road to Efrin and that they would “strongly respond” to the “hostile attitude” of those bombarding Sheikh Maqsoud.
An Amnesty International investigation carried out this May found that the Jaish al-Fatah coalition of Islamist groups may have carried out indiscriminate attacks on civilian homes, markets and mosques in Sheikh Maqsoud using chemical weapons.