Heavy bombing drives exodus of 235,000 in Syria

Agency Report

IN the olive groves of north-west Syria, tarpaulin sheets stretched across barren trees do little to keep out the sleeting rain.

The families huddle together for warmth as the temperatures drop towards freezing point. Babies are bundled in coats and blankets, while the adults burn wood and use up the last of their dwindling gas supplies.

They are among the 235,000 people who have fled airstrikes and shelling elsewhere in Idlib province in recent weeks, an exodus triggered by the ramped-up Syrian and Russian attacks on some of the most densely populated areas of the country’s last rebel bastion.

So many fled in such a short period that even the sprawling tent cities that abut the Turkish border are full, forcing thousands to sleep out in the open.

The International Rescue Committee warned on Saturday that continued violence could displace as many as 400,000 in the coming weeks.

Activists and the war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported limited clashes on the south-eastern edge of the enclave as well as an airstrike that destroyed a bakery in Maasran.

A baby is lifted onto a truck carrying civilians fleeing Maaret al-Numan, Syria, last week, ahead of the government offensive.

Rehana Zawar, the IRC’s country director for northwest Syria, said the enclave was already in the midst of a major humanitarian crisis. Zawar warned that if violence escalated, the number of displaced in Idlib could pass a million.

The enclave is already home to many displaced from previous rounds of violence in the war. “Conditions in Idlib are already at a breaking point,” Zawar said, calling for an immediate ceasefire.

On Tuesday, the United Nations in Syria sent an email to local NGOs saying its request for a pause in fighting had been met, and encouraged people in Maaret al-Numan to leave. Hours later, Russian warplanes bombed a school, killing six children.

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Aid agencies warn the situation is untenable and is threatening to turn into one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the eight-year war.

A man sorts through the damage to a shop in the city of Saraqeb in the Idlib countryside after an air strike by Syrian aircraft last week.

Even Donald Trump, not usually moved to speak out about the plight of Syrians, tweeted on Thursday: “Russia, Syria, and Iran are killing, or on their way to killing thousands of innocent civilians in Idlib province. Don’t do it!”

Most of the 3.5 million people in the province have been displaced from formerly rebel-held areas across the country and have nowhere left to go.

Turkey, which already hosts the most refugees of any country in the world, closed the frontier with Syria in response to the 2015 migrant crisis and built a wall to stem the flow.