Syria
Deadly earthquake exacerbates suffering of displaced Syrians
A steady stream of injured flowed into an overwhelmed hospital in the town of Darkush, in rebel-held northwestern Syria on Monday, after a deadly earthquake struck the region. Mothers hovered over crying children.
Amid the chaos, one man sat with a dazed expression, his face covered with abrasions.
The man, Osama Abdul Hamid, barely made it out alive with his wife and four children from his apartment building in the nearby village of Azmarin. Many of their neighbors were not so lucky.
“The building is four stories, and from three of them, no one made it out,” Abdul Hamid said, breaking down in tears. “God gave me a new lease on life.”
At an equally overwhelmed hospital in Idlib city, Shajul Islam, a British doctor who works with several non-governmental organizations, was having the worst day of his seven years working in Syria.
“I’m literally taking a patient off a ventilator to give another patient a chance, having to decide which patient has more of a chance of surviving or not,” Islam said.
The hospital, already struggling with weak health infrastructure and funding cuts, he said, was particularly overburdened after the earthquake because other hospitals in the area were out of commission.
“We’ve got quite a lot of hospitals that had been previously hit in the war. So they had already the foundations, everything had already been weakened,” he said. With the added blow of the earthquake, he said, "We’ve had at least three or four hospitals that I know of that have been put out of service."
The powerful 7.8 magnitude quake that struck before dawn on Monday wreaked new damage and suffering in Syria’s last rebel-held enclave after years of fighting and bombardment.
Hospitals and clinics were flooded with injured people. The enclave, centered in Idlib province, houses millions of displaced Syrians who had fled their homes during the country’s civil war. Many of the displaced live in dire conditions in makeshift camps. Many others there and in neighboring government-held areas are housed in buildings weakened by past bombings, leaving them even more vulnerable to shocks from earthquakes.
The quake caused total or partial damage to buildings in at least 58 villages, towns and cities in northwestern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
More than 4,000 people were killed in Turkey and Syria, with the toll expected to climb. In the opposition-held territory in Syria, at least 450 were reported dead, but hundreds more were believed be buried under the rubble of their homes.
“This disaster will worsen the suffering of Syrians already struggling with a severe humanitarian crisis,” Carsten Hansen, the director for the Middle East at the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement. “Millions have already been forced to flee by war in the wider region and now many more will be displaced by disaster.”
In the hospital in Darkush in western Idlib, Abdel Hamid said his family were sleeping in their apartment when they were roused by powerful, prolonged shaking. They ran from the apartment, but “before we reached the door of the building, the whole building came down on us,” he said.
A wooden door shielded them from the worst force of the collapse — they all got out alive. He and his wife and three of the children suffered head injuries, but are all in stable condition.
The scale of the casualties quickly overwhelmed the hospital’s resources, said Majdi al-Ibrahim, a general surgeon at the hospital.
“We need urgent help. The danger is beyond our capacity,” he said.
The Syrian American Medical Society, which runs hospitals in northern Syria and southern Turkey, said in a statement that its facilities are “overwhelmed with patients filling the hallways” and called urgently for “trauma supplies and a comprehensive emergency response to save lives and treat the injured.”
The opposition territory in the northwest corner of Syria has held out for years even after Syrian government forces retook most rebel-held areas around the country.
Fighting still flares from time to time with Russian-backed Syrian forces nearby. Parts of the territory are run by rebel groups, including a dominant al-Qaida-linked militant faction, while parts are under a Turkish-backed administration known as the Syrian Interim Government.
The disaster came on the heels of severe winter storms, further adding to the misery of those left without shelter.
“There is rain and the weather is very cold, there is snow in some of the areas,” Abdel Hakim al-Masri, economy minister with the Turkish-backed regional administration, told The Associated Press. He noted that some of the displacement camps in the area had been decimated by the quake.
Al-Masri said that efforts have begun to find temporary shelter for the people now doubly displaced by the earthquake, but that the magnitude of the response required is well beyond the local resources available.
“There is a huge amount of suffering, and this will increase it,” he said. "This matter calls for rapid action by all countries of the world.”
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Sewell reported from Beirut.
Engineers, search dogs sent to Turkey, Syria after quake
Structural engineers, soldiers, paramedics and handlers with trained search dogs are heading to Turkey and Syria to help locate and rescue survivors of Monday’s earthquake. Here's a glance at the assistance that's being provided:
— The European Union has mobilized search and rescue teams to help Turkey, while the bloc's Copernicus satellite system has been activated to provide emergency mapping services. At least 13 member countries have offered assistance.
— The United States is coordinating immediate assistance to Turkey, including teams to support search and rescue efforts. In California, nearly 100 Los Angeles County firefighters and structural engineers, along with six specially trained dogs, were being sent to Turkey.
— Russian rescue teams from the Emergencies Ministry were sent to Syria, where Russian military deployed in that country already has sent 10 units comprising 300 people to help clear debris and search for survivors. The Russian military has set up points to distribute humanitarian assistance. Russia also has offered help to Turkey, which has been accepted.
— War-ravaged Syria called for the United Nations and its members to help with rescue efforts, health services, shelter and food aid. Both government-held territory and the last opposition-held enclave were damaged by the earthquake.
— The International Committee of the Red Cross has sent enough surgical material to treat 100 people to one of the public hospitals in the Syrian city of Aleppo. More medical equipment is on its ways to Aleppo, Latakia and Tartous. The Red Cross also is donating canned food, blankets, mattresses and other essential items for distribution in the many shelters being set-up in affected areas.
— The Israeli army is sending a search and rescue team of 150 engineers, medical personnel and other aid workers to render lifesaving aid in Turkey. The two countries are mending ties after years of tensions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has also approved a request for humanitarian aid for Syria. Israel and Syria do not have diplomatic relations.
— Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the Palestinian Authority will dispatch two humanitarian missions to assist in Syria and Turkey. The aid missions will include civil defense and medical teams.
— Neighbor and historic rival Greece is sending Turkey a team of 21 rescuers, two rescue dogs and a special rescue vehicle, together with a structural engineer, five doctors and seismic planning experts in a military transport plane.
— The Lebanese army says it will send a team of 15 members of the miltiary’s engineering regiment to neighboring Syria to help in rescue operations in government-held parts of the country. Tuesday’s announcement came a day after the army sent 20 members of the same regiment to Turkey to help rescuers there who are racing to find survivors.
— One of Libya’s rival governments said it will dispatch a 55-member team to Turkey to help in rescue efforts. The government of Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dbeibah said the team would include rescuers, medical members along with four dogs.
— Spanish medical workers will set up a field hospital in Turkey to treat the wounded. Spain has mobilized troops and drones from the country’s Military Emergency Unit to Malatya airport, where the Turkish authorities have installed an international aid center. Spain will also contribute to aid efforts through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Spain will also contribute to rescue efforts in Syria through NGOs operating there.
— Germany’s THW civil protection agency is sending a 50-member rescue team to Turkey on Tuesday. A team from the group International Search and Rescue Germany, with 42 experts and seven dogs, has arrived in Turkey and is heading to Kirikhan, near the Syrian border. Germany also has been readying deliveries of emergency generators, tents, blankets and water treatment equipment.
— South Korea will dispatch a 60-person search and rescue team and 50 troops and send medical supplies to Turkey. The government also says it is providing an initial $5 million in humanitarian support, and the Gyeonggi provincial government plans to provide $1 million in humanitarian assistance.
— Pakistan has sent one flight of relief supplies and another carrying a 50-member search and rescue team. The government says daily aid flights to Syria and Turkey will start Wednesday.
— Britain is sending 76 search-and-rescue specialists with equipment and dogs, as well as an emergency medical team, to Turkey. The U.K. also says it’s in contact with the U.N. about getting support to victims in Syria.
— India is sending 100 search and rescue personnel from its Natural Disaster Response Force to Turkey, as well as specially trained dog squads and equipment for relief efforts. Medical teams with trained doctors, paramedics and essential medicines are also ready, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
— Taiwan is sending 130 rescue squad members, five search dogs and 13 tons of equipment to Turkey. Interior Minister Lin Yu-chang said the first group left for Turkey late Monday and another was sent Tuesday. Taiwan earlier said it would donate $200,000 to Turkey.
— Swiss rescue dog service REDOG is sending 22 rescuers with 14 dogs to Turkey. The government said it would also send 80 search and rescue specialists to the country, including army disaster experts.
— The Czech Republic is sending Turkey a team of 68 rescuers, including firefighters, doctors, structural engineers and also experts with sniffer dogs.
— Japan is sending a group of about 75 rescue workers to Turkey.
— Austria has offered to send 84 soldiers from a military disaster relief unit to Turkey.
— Poland is sending Turkey 76 firefighters and eight trained dogs, with equipment.
— Romania is sending specialized personnel and material to Turkey on two military aircraft.
— Croatia is sending 40 personnel and 10 dogs, rescue equipment and vans to Turkey.
— Serbia is sending 21 rescuers and three liaison officers to Turkey.
— Montenegro is sending at least 24 firefighters to Turkey.
— Moldova's president says 55 rescue workers have been sent to Turkey.
— France is dispatching rescue teams to Turkey.
— Jordan is sending emergency aid to Syria and Turkey on the orders of King Abdullah II.
— Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary said the country will send equipment and rescue specialists to Turkey.
— Egypt has pledged urgent humanitarian aid to Turkey.
— Italy’s Civil Protection Agency has offered assistance to Turkey. A firefighting team was preparing to leave from Pisa, and the Italian military says transport flights will carry equipment as well as health and other personnel.
— New Zealand is providing $632,000 to the Turkish Red Crescent and $316,000 to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to deliver items such as food, tents and blankets, as well as provide medical assistance and psychological support.
— China’s Red Cross Society is providing the Turkish Red Crescent and the Syrian Red Crescent with $200,000 each in humanitarian assistance.
UN agencies launch emergency response as powerful quake rocks Turkey, Syria
After a massive earthquake hit southern Türkiye and northern Syria in the early hours of Monday, prompting fears of a humanitarian crisis, the UN aid agencies scrambled to help many thousands of reported victims, including those still believed to be buried under the rubble.
The initial 7.8 magnitude quake struck close to Gaziantep, followed by another 7.5 magnitude tremor several hours later.
In a situation overview, the UN aid coordination office OHCHA, said there had been "close to 2,000 deaths reported" in the two countries impacted, with at least 78 aftershocks reported, ahead of the second earthquake.
The Turkish government issued a Level 4 alarm, calling for international assistance. Northwest Syria is home to around 4.1 million people who rely on humanitarian assistance, the majority, being women and children.
Syrian communities have been hit by an ongoing cholera outbreak together with harsh winter weather. So far there is a 48 percent funding gap for the last quarter of 2022, with $371 million pledged, out of a required total of just over $800 million.
Emergency medical teams from the World Health Organization (WHO) have been given the green light to provide essential care for the injured and most vulnerable, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted.
Specialist UN surge teams from the Office of UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) also tweeted that they were "ready to deploy," amid multiple horrifying social media posts showing huge buildings collapsing in heavily built-up areas.
The OCHA underscored that the initial 7.8 magnitude quake hit at the height of winter. The epicentre was in southern Türkiye, where nearby Gaziantep – an important UN aid hub for northern Syria – was among the cities affected.
Although the earthquake was felt as far away as Lebanon, closer to home, northern Syria's Aleppo and Idlib also reportedly saw thousands of buildings collapse, including two hospitals.
Humanitarian needs in northern Syria are already huge, as the region is home to millions of people displaced by the country's long-running war.
Snow and rain have hampered the work of rescue teams, whose families are also among those believed to be buried under collapsed buildings.
After an official request for international assistance from Ankara, the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF, confirmed that it was ready to support the emergency response.
Echoing that message of support, the UN migration agency, IOM, said its warehouse in Gaziantep had prepared non-food items and essential relief ready to be deployed. "The IOM teams are also doing on-the-ground assessments to inform the response," said spokesperson Safa Msehli.
Read more: What to know about the big quake that hit Turkey, Syria
What to know about the big quake that hit Turkey, Syria
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Monday devastated wide swaths of Turkey and Syria, killing thousands of people.
The quake hit at depth of 11 miles (18 kilometres) and was centred in southern Turkey, near the northern border of Syria, according to the US Geological Survey.
Many aftershocks have rocked the area since the initial quake. In the first 11 hours, the region had felt 13 significant aftershocks with a magnitude of at least 5, said Alex Hatem, a USGS research geologist.
Scientists are studying whether a magnitude 7.5 quake that hit nine hours after the main shock is an aftershock. Hatem said it appears to be the case.
"More aftershocks are certainly expected, given the size of the main shock," Hatem said. "We expect aftershocks to continue in the coming days, weeks and months."
Researchers said the earthquake was a strike-slip quake, where two tectonic plates slide past each other horizontally, instead of moving up and down.
In this case, one block moved west while the other moved east – grinding past each other to create the quake, Hatem said.
The quake occurred in a seismically active area known as the East Anatolian fault zone, which has produced damaging earthquakes in the past.
Turkey had another major earthquake in January 2020 – a magnitude 6.7 that caused significant damage.
The earthquake was powerful – one of the biggest strike-slip earthquakes that has hit on land, Hatem said.
"On top of that, it's located near populated areas," she said.
Building collapses were reported in cities, including Diyarbakir, Turkey, and Aleppo, Syria.
Rescue efforts were also hampered by freezing temperatures and traffic jams from residents trying to leave quake-stricken areas.
Read more: Powerful quake rocks Turkey and Syria, kills more than 2,300
Earthquake death toll crosses 5,000 as Turkey, Syria seek survivors
Rescuers raced Tuesday to find survivors in the rubble of thousands of buildings brought down by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria, with the discovery of more bodies raising the death toll to more than 5,000.
Countries around the world dispatched teams to assist in the rescue efforts, and Turkey's disaster management agency said more than 24,400 emergency personnel were now on the ground. But with such a wide swath of territory hit by Monday’s earthquake and nearly 6,000 buildings confirmed to have collapsed in Turkey alone, their efforts were spread thin.
Attempts to reach survivors were also impeded by temperatures below freezing and close to 200 aftershocks, which made the search through unstable structures perilous.
Nurgul Atay told The Associated Press she could hear her mother's voice beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in the city of Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, but that her and others efforts to get into the ruins had been futile without any rescue crews and heavy equipment to help.
“If only we could lift the concrete slab we'd be able to reach her,” she said. “My mother is 70-years-old, she won't be able to withstand this for long.”
Across Hatay province, just southwest of the earthquake's epicenter, officials say as many as 1,500 buildings were destroyed and many people reported relatives being trapped under the rubble with no aid or rescue teams arriving.
In areas where teams worked, occasional cheers broke out through the night as survivors were brought out of the rubble.
The quake, which was centered in Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, sent residents of Damascus and Beirut rushing into the street and was felt as far away as Cairo.
Sebastien Gay, the head of mission in Syria for Doctors Without Borders, said health facilities in northern Syria were overwhelmed with medical personnel working around “around the clock to respond to the huge numbers of wounded.”
In Turkey's Hatay province, thousands of people sheltered in sports centers or fair halls, while others spent the night outside, huddled in blankets around fires.
Turkey has large numbers of troops in the border region with Syria and has tasked the military to aid in the rescue efforts, including setting up tents for the homeless and a field hospital in Hatay province. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said a humanitarian aid brigade based in Ankara and eight military search and rescue teams had also been deployed.
A navy ship docked on Tuesday at the province's port of Iskenderun, where a hospital collapsed, to transport survivors in need of medical care to the nearby city of Mersin. Thick, black smoke rose from another area of the port, where firefighters have not yet been able to douse a fire that broke out among shipping containers that were toppled by the earthquake.
In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, a provincial capital about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from the epicenter, people took refuge in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centers.
Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said the total number of deaths in Turkey had risen to 3,419, with another 20,534 people injured.
The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 812 people, with some 1,450 injured, according to the Health Ministry. In the country’s rebel-held northwest, the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense, or White Helmets, the paramedic group leading rescue operations, said that at least 790 were killed and more than 2,200 injured.
That brought the overall total to 5,021.
Authorities fear the death toll will keep climbing as the rescuers look for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.
In the latest pledges of international help, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he was preparing to swiftly dispatch a 60-person search and rescue team as well as medical supplies and 50 soldiers. Pakistan's government sent a flight carrying relief supplies and a 50-member search and rescue team early Tuesday, and said there will be daily aid flights to Syria and Turkey from Wednesday. India said it would send two search and rescue teams, including specially trained dogs and medical personnel.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will travel to Ankara Wednesday to express his condolences and solidarity, according to a statement from Islamabad.
U.S. President Joe Biden called Erdogan to express condolences and offer assistance to the NATO ally. The White House said it was sending search-and-rescue teams to support Turkey’s efforts.
The quake piled more misery on a region that has seen tremendous suffering over the past decade. On the Syrian side, the affected area is divided between government-controlled territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. Turkey is home to millions of refugees from the Syrian civil war.
In the rebel-held enclave, hundreds of families remained trapped in rubble, the opposition emergency organization known as the White Helmets said in a statement. The area is packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of the country by the war. Many live in buildings that are were already damaged by military bombardments.
Strained medical centers quickly filled with injured people, rescue workers said. Some facilities had to be emptied, including a maternity hospital, according to the SAMS medical organization.
More than 7,800 people were rescued across 10 provinces, according to Orhan Tatar, an official with Turkey’s disaster management authority.
The region sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Monday’s quake at 7.8, with a depth of 18 kilometers (11 miles). Hours later, another quake, likely triggered by the first, struck more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away with 7.5 magnitude.
The second jolt caused a multistory apartment building in the Turkish city of Sanliurfa to topple onto the street in a cloud of dust as bystanders screamed, according to video of the scene.
Thousands of buildings were reported collapsed in a wide area extending from Syria’s cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey’s Diyarbakir, more than 330 kilometers (200 miles) to the northeast.
Turkey launches airstrikes over northern Syria
Turkey launched airstrikes over several towns in northern Syria on Saturday, U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces reported.
The airstrikes occurred a week after a bomb rocked a bustling avenue in the heart of Istanbul, killing six people and wounding over 80 others. Turkish authorities blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as well as Syrian Kurdish groups affiliated with it. The Kurdish militants groups have, however, denied involvement.
Ankara and Washington both consider the PKK a terror group, but disagree on the status of the Syrian Kurdish groups, which have been allied with the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.
Following the strikes, the Turkish ministry of defense posted a photo of a fighter plane with the phrase, “The treacherous attacks of the scoundrels are being held to account."
The airstrikes targeted Kobani, a strategic town near the Turkish border that Ankara had previously attempted to overtake in its plans to establish a “safe zone” along northern Syria. SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami in a tweet added that two villages heavily populated with displaced people were under Turkish bombardment. He said the strikes had resulted in “deaths and injuries.”
Syrian opposition media reported that Turkish airstrikes targeted Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces positions.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that the strikes had also hit Syrian army positions and that at least 12 had been killed, including both SDF and Syrian army soldiers.
Read more: Market blast in north Syria kills at least 9, wounds dozens
The observatory said about 25 air strikes were carried out by Turkish warplanes on sites in the countryside of Aleppo, Raqqa and Hasakah.
In neighboring Iraq, the U.S. Consulate General in Erbil said it is monito21 die in Syria as airstrike targets market, school shelledring “credible open-source reports” of potential Turkish military action in northern Syria and northern Iraq in the coming days.
The Kurdish-led authority in northeast Syria said Saturday that if Turkey attacks, then fighters in the area would have “the right to resist and defend our areas in a major way that will take the region into a long war.”
Turkey has launched three major cross-border operations into Syria since 2016 and already controls some territories in the north.
Read more:
6 killed in Syria's shelling of tent settlement, monitors say
Syrian government forces shelled tent settlements housing families displaced by the country’s conflict in the rebel-held northwest early Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, opposition war monitors and first responders said.
The shelling is the latest violation of a truce reached between Russia and Turkey in March 2020 that ended a Russian-backed government offensive on Idlib province that is the last major rebel-held stronghold in Syria.
Read more: 77 migrants killed as boat sinks off Syrian coast
The truce has been repeatedly violated over the past two years killing and wounding scores of people.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that government forces fired about 30 rockets toward rebel-held areas, including the Maram camp Sunday morning killing six and wounding 25. It said the dead included two children and one woman.
The tent settlement is just northwest of the provincial capital of Idlib.
Rebel factions responded by targeting government positions with artillery and missiles in the area of Saraqib, east of Idlib, and the al-Ghab plain, the observatory reported.
Read more: Satellite image: Israel attack damaged Syrian airport runway
The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, reported that six people were killed, including two children and a woman, and 75 injured in shelling targeting at least six camps west of the capital.
The pro-government Sham FM radio station said Syrian government forces shelled positions of the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, the most powerful militant group in Idlib. It said Syrian and Russian warplanes also attacked the areas.
Syria’s conflict broke out in March 2011 and has since killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million and left large parts of Syria destroyed.
US says airstrikes in Syria intended to send message to Iran
U.S. military airstrikes in eastern Syria were a message to Iran and Tehran-backed militias that targeted American troops this month and several other times over the past year, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters that the U.S. airstrikes overnight on facilities used by militias backed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard demonstrated that “the United States will not hesitate to defend itself against Iranian and Iran-backed aggression when it occurs.”
He said the U.S. decision to launch the strikes was based on both the nature of the militia attacks on Aug. 15 at the al-Tanf Garrison, where U.S. troops are based in the south, and the fact that, based on recovered drone parts, “we believe we have Iran dead to rights on attribution.”
Hours after the U.S. strikes, two U.S. military locations in northeastern Syria near large oil and gas fields were hit with rocket fire. According to U.S. Central Command, the rockets hit near Green Village and the Conoco gas field in Deir el-Zour. One U.S. service member was treated for a minor injury and has been returned to duty, and two others were under evaluation for minor injuries. CENTCOM said U.S. forces responded by destroying three vehicles and equipment used to launch some of the rockets, killing “two or three suspected Iran-backed militants.”
The opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Deir Ezzor 24 said the U.S. airstrikes targeted the Ayash Camp run by the Fatimiyoun group made up of Shiite fighters from Afghanistan. The war monitor reported that at least six Syrian and foreign militants were killed in the airstrikes, while Deir Ezzor 24 reported 10 deaths.
Deir el-Zour is a strategic province that borders Iraq and contains oil fields. Iran-backed militia groups and Syrian forces control the area and have often been the target of Israeli war planes in previous strikes.
In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani issued a statement condemning the American strike “against the people and infrastructure of Syria.” He denied Iran had any link to those targeted.
Read: US airstrikes target militia-controlled areas in east Syria
Iran routinely denies arming militia groups that target U.S. forces in the region, despite weaponry linking back to them.
Kahl said the U.S. strikes underscore that while the U.S. continues to pursue negotiations with Iran to resume its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, those talks are not connected at all to America's willingness to take against when attacked.
“The threats that they engage in against our people in the region or elsewhere, are not linked to wherever we end up on the nuclear deal,” said Kahl. “It actually has nothing to do with our willingness and resolve to defend ourselves. And I think the strike last night was a pretty clear communication to the Iranians that these things are are all on different tracks.”
CENTCOM said the U.S. strikes “took proportionate, deliberate action intended to limit the risk of escalation and minimize the risk of casualties.” It did not identify the targets or offer any casualty figures from the strikes, which the military said came at the orders of President Joe Biden.
“Today’s strikes were necessary to protect and defend U.S. personnel,” Central Command spokesman Col. Joe Buccino said in a statement.
Kahl said the militia's coordinated attack on two U.S. facilities at al-Tanf at the same time this month fueled concerns that “Iran intends to do more of this and we wanted to disabuse them of any sense that that was a good idea.”
He said the U.S. initially identified 11 bunker targets at the site and ended up striking nine because there was evidence there may be people near two of the locations and the goal was not to cause casualties.
The U.S. Treasury said the Fatimiyoun group has fought numerous battles in Syria, and is led by Iran’s elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard.
“The Ayash warehouse is a very important one for Iran’s militias,” Deir Ezzor 24 CEO Omar Abu Layla told The Associated Press. “We expect that Iran will respond, either in al-Tanf or possibly in Iraq.”
In the Aug. 15 attack, drones allegedly launched by Iranian-backed militias targeted the al-Tanf Garrison used by American forces. Central Command described the assault as causing “zero casualties and no damage” at the time.
There was no immediate acknowledgment by Syria’s state-run media of the strikes hitting Deir el-Zour.
U.S. forces entered Syria in 2015, backing allied forces in their fight against the Islamic State group.
Humanitarian corridors, from Syria to Ukraine
As more Ukrainian towns and cities come under siege, concern is mounting for millions of civilians in the crossfire.
Russia has announced the establishment of safe corridors to allow civilians to leave, but there appeared to be few takers. Evacuation routes led mostly to Russia and its ally Belarus, drawing withering criticism from Ukraine and others. And Russia continued to pound some cities with rockets even after the announcement of corridors.
Such tactics were common during the Syria war after Moscow entered the war in 2015 to shore up President Bashar Assad’s forces.
WHAT ARE HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS?
Humanitarian corridors arise when a population is caught in a war zone, particularly when a city or town is under siege. The idea is that hostilities are halted for a certain time to allow civilians who need to flee to do so along designated routes or to allow urgent humanitarian aid to enter for civilians who remain.
The term was first evoked during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, when the U.N. set up “safe areas” for civilians. But the attempt was seen as a failure since the U.N. was unable to protect the zones when they came under attack.
HOW WERE THEY USED IN SYRIA?
During the Syrian civil war, the Russian and Syrian militaries pursued a strategy of systematically besieging opposition-held cities, towns and districts, sometimes for months or even years. The sieges rained destruction on the populations, with airstrikes, artillery and rockets blasting residential districts, hospitals and infrastructure.
Also read: Ukraine says Russian general killed
Eventually in each case, the Russians and Syrians would offer humanitarian corridors, telling civilians and even some fighters they could leave. Most would then be funneled into the northwest province of Idlib, which remains to this day the last opposition-held enclave in Syria.
Humanitarian corridors were created for besieged districts around Damascus and parts of the cities of Homs and Hama. The largest and most famous was for eastern Aleppo in late 2016, capping four years of devastating siege.
WERE THEY SAFE?
Russian and Syrian forces were often accused of breaking the cease-fires surrounding humanitarian corridors with continued bombing of the besieged cities.
“When they talked about these humanitarian corridors or ceasefires, we never believed them. How can you trust someone to stop who is bombing you all the time?” said Afraa Hashem, a 40-year-old activist who survived the Aleppo siege and now resides in London.
She recalled how during a humanitarian corridor ceasefire on December 14, 2016, the house where she was sheltering with her family was hit by incendiary bombs.
There were also cases of civilians or fighters being detained by Syrian forces as they tried to use humanitarian corridors despite promises of safe passage. In some cases, opposition fighters reportedly opened fire on corridors, either to prevent people from leaving or to spark clashes.
Still, tens of thousands of people used the corridors to get out of the combat zones. They make up the bulk of the 3 million people crowded into Idlib province, which is surrounded by Syrian forces and is still hit by Russian airstrikes.
“After four years under bombs, they forced us to leave, that’s what it is” said Hashem. “They didn’t save us. They put us in another area of bombs, Idlib.”
Also read: Crisis deepens, Ukraine accuses Moscow of 'medieval' tactics
SO WERE THE CORRIDORS EFFECTIVE?
Ultimately, they were effective in attaining the goals of Russia and the Syrian government: To regain control of opposition areas.
Critics say Russia and Damascus benefited another way as well by carrying out mass demographic change, removing large opposition populations, many of whom have not been able to return to their homes.
Human rights groups and humanitarian agencies point out that under international law, every effort should be made to ensure civilians’ safety no matter where they are.
The tactic of siege-plus-humanitarian corridor, they say, essentially gives residents a brutal choice between fleeing into the arms of their attackers or dying under bombardment.
They said the offer also gives an illusion of legitimacy to the mass slaughter of civilians who remain behind once the siege resumes in full force.
“It is not like Russia can create a humanitarian corridor for two days and then say, ‘Well, we’ve done our job, now we can destroy everything,’” said Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher for Human Rights Watch.
IS leader blows up self, family as US attacks Syria hideout
The leader of the Islamic State group blew himself up along with members of his family as American forces raided his Syria hideout Thursday, the U.S. said — the second time in three years the United States has taken out a leader of the violent group that has been struggling for resurgence with deadly attacks in the region.
President Joe Biden announced the overnight raid by American special operations forces, which U.S. officials called a “significant blow” to the radical militant organization.
The IS group at the height of its power controlled more than 40,000 square miles stretching from Syria to Iraq and ruled over 8 million people. Its attacks in the region included a major assault last month to seize a prison in northeast Syria holding at least 3,000 IS detainees.
The raid targeted Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, who took over as head of the group on Oct. 31, 2019, just days after leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died during a U.S. raid. Al-Qurayshi, unlike his predecessor, was far from a household name, a secretive man who presided over a far diminished version of the group and didn’t appear in public.
Biden said al-Qurayshi died as al-Baghdadi did, by exploding a bomb that killed himself and members of his family, including women and children, as U.S. forces approached.
“Thanks to the bravery of our troops this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said at the White House. He said al-Qurayshi had been responsible for the prison assault, as well as genocide against the Yazidi people in Iraq in 2014.
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About 50 U.S. special operations forces landed in helicopters and attacked a house in a rebel-held corner of Syria, clashing for two hours with gunmen, witnesses said. Residents described continuous gunfire and explosions that jolted the town of Atmeh near the Turkish border, an area dotted with camps for internally displaced people from Syria’s civil war.
Biden said he ordered U.S. forces to “take every precaution available to minimize civilian casualties,” the reason they did not conduct an airstrike on the home.
First responders reported that 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said U.S. forces were able to evacuate 10 people from the building: a man, a woman and four children from the first floor and four children from the second floor. He said when al-Qurayshi detonated the bomb, he also killed his wife and two children. Kirby said that U.S. officials were working to determine whether American action resulted in any civilian deaths.
There were no U.S. casualties, Kirby said. U.S. forces took fingerprints and DNA, which confirmed al-Qurayshi’s death, he said.
Biden, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and senior national security aides monitored a live-feed of the operation from the White House Situation Room according to an official. In December, a tabletop model of the three-floor house had been brought to the high-security room.
The raid marked a military success for the United States at an important time after setbacks elsewhere — including the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal — had led allies and opponents to conclude U.S. power globally was weakening.
The house, surrounded by olive trees in fields outside Atmeh, was left with its top floor shattered and blood spattered inside. A journalist on assignment for The Associated Press, and several residents, said they saw body parts scattered near the site. Most residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Idlib is largely controlled by Turkish-backed fighters but is also an al-Qaida stronghold and home to several of its top operatives. Other militants, including extremists from the rival IS group, have also found refuge in the region.
“The first moments were terrifying; no one knew what was happening,” said Jamil el-Deddo, a resident of a nearby refugee camp. “We were worried it could be Syrian aircraft, which brought back memories of barrel bombs that used to be dropped on us,” he added, referring to explosives-filled containers used by President Bashar Assad’s forces against opponents during the Syrian conflict.
Also read:13 reported killed as US forces launch raid in Syria
The top floor of the low house was nearly destroyed, sending white bricks tumbling to the ground below.
A wrecked bedroom had a child’s wooden crib and a stuffed rabbit doll. On one damaged wall, a blue plastic baby swing was still hanging. Religious books, including a biography of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad, were in the house.
Al-Qurayshi had kept an extremely low profile since he took over leadership of the Islamic State. U.S. officials said he never left his apartment except to bathe on the building’s roof. It is difficult to gauge how his death will affect the group. U.S. officials claimed he was directly overseeing operations in Syria, including last month’s attack on the prison.
“They’re leaderless today, and that’s a significant blow,” Kirby said. “This not something we believe ISIS is going to be able to get over real quickly or real easily.”
The second floor of the house was occupied by a lower-ranking Islamic State leader and his family, but the first floor contained civilians who were unconnected to the terrorist group and unaware of al-Qurayshi’s presence, according to U.S. officials, who described them as unwitting human shields.
Biden gave “the final go” on the mission on Tuesday morning during his daily national security briefing in the Oval Office, where he was joined by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
In the first stages of the operation, residents and activists said, U.S. commandos staged a large ground assault, using megaphones urging women and children to leave the area.
Much to the relief of U.S. officials, the family on the first floor exited the building unharmed.
The IS lieutenant, who officials did not name, who lived on the second floor barricaded himself inside along with his wife and engaged in combat with the commandos who entered the home after the explosion. After a firefight, in which both were killed, officials said four children were removed from the second floor alive by U.S. forces. Kirby said that it appeared that a child on the second floor also died, though the circumstances were not clear.
The special operations forces spent about two hours on the ground, longer than usual for such an operation — indicative, U.S. officials said, of caution to minimize civilian casualties.
Another firefight erupted with a local extremist group with “”hostile” intent, Kirby said. Two people were killed outside the house and “their compadres left,” he said.
U.S. troops launched the airborne raid from a base in the region, but officials would not specify the precise location due to operational security concerns. They added that the U.S. “deconflicted” the operation with a “a range of entities” but did not specify whether those included Russia, which has supported the Assad government in Syria.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command and the commander of the operation, said the mission goal was to capture al-Qurayshi. He said the blast set off by the IS leader was larger than would have been expected from a suicide vest, and that al-Qurayshi’s body was found on the ground outside the building, thrown from the third floor by the force of the blast.
There was no comment from the Syrian government, which rarely acknowledges or comments on attacks by foreign countries targeting areas outside its control.
A U.S. official said one of the helicopters in the raid suffered a mechanical problem and was redirected to a site nearby, where it was destroyed.
Through slickly engineered propaganda, including brutal beheading videos, IS emerged as a dominant global extremist threat in the past decade. Its clarion call to followers in the West to either join its self-described caliphate in Syria, or to commit acts of violence at home, inspired killings in the U.S. as well as thousands of travelers determined to become foreign fighters.
Last month‘s attack on the prison in Hasaka marked the group’s biggest military operation since it was defeated and its members scattered underground in 2019. The attack appeared aimed to break free senior IS operatives in the prison.
It took 10 days of fighting for U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led forces to retake the prison fully, and the force said more than 120 of its fighters and prison workers were killed along with 374 militants.