SDF looks to clear more civilians from last ISIL pocket in Syria

US-backed fighters have said they are keeping a corridor open to rescue remaining civilians from the last sliver of territory held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) in Syria, as the UN appeals for urgent assistance.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have evacuated nearly 5,000 men, women and children from the holdout in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz since Wednesday, bringing the US-backed SDF closer to retaking the less than half a square kilometre of area still under ISIL control.

“On our side, the corridor is open and we hope a larger number of civilians will arrive, but that depends on IS fighters and whether they will give civilians a chance to exit,” SDF spokesman Adnan Afrin told AFP news agency at their Al-Omar base.

More than four years after ISIL overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq and declared a “caliphate”, they have lost all but a tiny patch in Baghouz near the Iraqi border.

Some 2,000 people are believed to remain inside the village, according to the SDF.

The force says it is trying to evacuate remaining civilians through a corridor before pressing on with a battle to crush ISIL unless the group’s holdout fighters surrender.

Afrin said the SDF had evacuated “more than 2,000 people, including women, children and men” on Friday, mostly wives and children of ISIL fighters.

On Thursday, nearly 2,500 evacuees arrived at a Kurdish-run camp for the displaced further north, compounding already dire conditions inside the crammed settlement, the UN’s humanitarian coordination office OCHA said.

It warned of “huge challenges” posed by the influx.

‘No victory’

The SDF transferred those evacuated on Friday to a screening point outside Baghouz to weed out potential ISIL members.

Spokesman Mustefa Bali said a group of Yazidi children were “among many children saved” from ISIL territory that day.  

An AFP corespondent saw hundreds of women and children spread out on the arid desert ground, surrounded by bags, begging for food and water.

One woman rushed towards an SDF fighter screaming, as she cradled a pale infant in her arms. The fighter assured that her child would be fine.

Another women claimed she was about to go into labour.

Nearby, an Iraqi woman in her forties wearing a face veil held in her hand a medical report in English.

She said the report was written for her by a doctor inside the Baghouz pocket, explaining that she needed treatment for kidney problems.

Syrian woman Khadija Ali Mohammad, the 24-year-old wife of a deceased ISIL fighter, said conditions inside the group’s remaining pocket of territory were deplorable.

“We were living in tents and eating bread made from bran. My three sisters and I didn’t have enough money to pay smugglers to get us out before, and our husbands had died in battle,” the woman from Aleppo’s countryside in northern Syria told AFP.

She was disappointed at the collapse of the ISIL proto-state.

“God had promised us a caliphate and we went to it,” she said. “I feel there will be no victory although they [ISIL] tell us victory is near.”

‘Huge challenges’

Around 46,000 people – mostly civilians – have streamed out of ISIL’s shrinking territory since early December, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

While civilians are trucked north to Kurdish-run camps for the displaced, mainly to Al-Hol, six hours drive from Baghouz, suspected ISIL members are sent to SDF-controlled detention centres.

OCHA said 18 of the 2,500 latest arrivals in Al-Hol, mostly women and children, were in “critical condition”.

“Thousands more are expected in coming hours/days at Al-Hol camp, putting a further strain on basic services,” it tweeted.

“This sudden influx presents huge challenges to the response – additional tents, non-food items, water and sanitation and health supplies are urgently needed.”    

The International Rescue Committee on Friday said 69 people, mostly children, died on the way to Al-Hol, now home to more than 40,000 of the displaced.

“Two thirds of the deaths are of babies under one year old,” the relief group said.

The SDF says it has limited resources to administer camps and has called for support from the international community.