With the first skirmishes of the Syrian southwestern offensive starting to grow into outright fighting, reports out of the area say that over 50,000 civilians have fled their homes in just the past week. This is overwhelmingly from the areas in the de-escalation zone expected to be major targets in the fighting.
Journalists in the area say that at least 27 civilians were killed. The displaced are scattering in all directions, some going deeper into rebel territory along the border, others heading north out of the likely contested areas.
The de-escalation zone in Daraa was, for quite some time, totally calm, and a lot of the people living in this area were much safer than people in most of the rest of war-torn Syria. That zone is rapidly collapsing, however.
Syria has telegraphed their offensive against rebels in the area for months, as al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front has tried to attack army positions ahead of the offensive itself. With the fighting seeming likely to just grow in the weeks to come, locals are scrambling to find a safe place to wait it out.
“You’re on your own, US tells Syrian rebels, as Assad goes on offensive”, Reuters, TheGuardian, Jun 24 2018.
That leaves Israel and/or Jordan to act overtly.
Wrong, Russia secured Israel’s commitment to not get involved as long as Iranian militias will not operate near Israel. Jordan is not strong enough to act alone, even if it were a good idea, which it isn’t. If Al Qaeda took over Nevada, would you hope for Mexico to defend Al Qaeda when the US moved to kill the terrorists?
I still don’t understand the analogy.
In any case, Israel continues to move troops into occupied Golan as of July 1. Jordan has sealed its border with troops and tanks but has delivered aid to refugees denied entry into Jordan.
The only reason nothing further has happened is that the U.S. isn’t going to stake a proxy-war for South Syria either. They apparently really do mean the South Syrian DAESH are on their own.
If it’s anything like Aleppo, most of these people won’t be fleeing to “rebel” controlled areas, but to parts of Syria controlled by the SAA. There will be so much less torture, women and children in cages, heads impaled on poles, etc.