Posted on 05/20/2017 6:19:56 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
At least 100 thousand civilians have been transferred from Raqqa city center and surroundings to safe zones.
There is an escape among all the dust. The people advance in groups. Vehicles are filled up up to 3 times their height. People are everywhere, walking. Dust clouds make it hard to see far. The town and villages they leave behind aren’t visible, there is a vague sight behind them.
In the muggy weather and hot wind, women in black niqabs can be seen. A child carries a baby. Everybody is exhausted. There is the mark of exhaustion on children’s faces, their mothers, the young and the old.
Trucks, tractors, cars, motorcycles, all are full, all carry belongings, all are escaping. But they also bring the hope for a new life. This escape through the dust, this fear also signifies a hope, a return to life and rebuilding a life. They are escaping tyranny, violence and a dark night.
Among the people escaping Raqqa, its districts and its villages, 5 people on a motorcycle catch the eye. Two children are tucked in the front, their father or another family member right behind them, and lastly a woman with a child on her left. On another motorcycle, there are 7 people. 2 daughters and the father in the front, two children tucked in the middle and a mother in the back, holding her sleeping baby in her lap tight.
The vehicles and civilians rush to SDF controlled areas on their own or in groups. Throughout the way, security is also provided by the SDF. Blankets, beds, kitchen supplies, the people put whatever they could gather on the vehicles. Some vehicles have stuff piled on their hood. People are seen sitting on top of stuff piled in trailers.
The walkers are not empty handed either. People carry their children on one arm, and their stuff on the other. There are some who brought their animals. Some women have buckets balanced on their heads.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been rescued in the recent months as part of the Wrath of Euphrates operation launched in November 2016. Some managed to run from ISIS cruelty with their own means and others were victims to ISIS bullets and bombs. Thousands are used still by ISIS gangs as human shields.
As of May 13, at least 100 thousand civilians from the Raqqa city center and the surroundings were transported to the safe zones by the SDF. Local NGOs and residents support these civilians but there is a need for international aid as resources are very limited. A significant portion of the civilians are hosted in Ayn Isa camp. There are currently over 20 thousand people there.
They have endured years of extreme oppression and fear.
The final days of ISIS are near. Imagine walking away from everything you cannot carry to escape with your life. Hoping when it is over to rebuild, start over, not having a clue how that will happen.
The photo says a lot.
So far, the UN humanitarian aid organizations have had very limited presence in the Raqqa area. (It is an active war zone.)
Syria Ping
Refugees flee Raqqa
are these the pentagon sponsored jihadists or the cia sponsored jihadists or the John McCain sponsored ones ?
It difficult for me to follow sometimes which set of jihadists we are talking about
ISIS controls Raqqa because Turkey allows it. Turkey will continue to support ISIS as long as the Sunni Arab jihadists who control ISIS and its adherents effectively fight the Kurds. If the Kurds somehow succeed, Turkey itself will lose its territorial integrity.
Can’t we just send back the males with a gun?
Alawites? We shouldn’t be in another Muslim civil war, regardless. And we darn sure shouldn’t be fighting against Russia. This is no different from the pictures of the suffering g Palestinians.
How about reject the religion of death, for your children’s sake. Fix your own country. If you would t fight for your freedom, why should we?
ISIS are Satan’s Servants. Spawn of Obama, certainly not currently supported by the US.
Trump said he will end this evil. I believe him.
SDF (non-Jihadi’s non terrorists; Kurds, Christians, Arabs) and US Special Ops are arranging ISIS to be reunited with their master the Devil.
With US help ISIS will be destroyed. Our Special Ops are doing a great job of supporting some really tough Syrian soldiers.
No, Alawites are a very small group. And no, this is not a civil war. The parties behind it are foreign.
SDF has not sought to overthrow Assad, but wants a Federation government for future.
No, this is not like the so called Palestinians.
and the ones that just had a shave ?
Interesting because I thought Assad was alawite. A minor group, the world rushed in to support.. wrong country, huh? Of course it’s outside countries also this is, as well as the rest of the ME, Israel excluded, a Muslim civil war, without a doubt. Courtesy of Jimmah Carter and the shah.
Texas,
Trump was right when he said ‘we don’t even know who we are giving weapons to in Syria”
BTW - the Christians in Syria support Assad
Well some don’t. There is an Assyrian Christian element in SDF.
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