Russia’s Reconciliation Center for Syria said Friday that the humanitarian situation in At Tanf, Syria on the nation’s border with Iraq remains extremely difficult, as refugees in the neighboring Rukban camp cannot get access to humanitarian and medical aid.
The center added that the US established a military base in Syria without the government’s permission and banned anyone from coming within 55 kilometers, noting that the base’s proximity to the Rukban refugee camp may be considered a war crime.
It cited witnesses as saying that the US has recently deployed another camp near Rukban where militants gather in order to join its latest attempt to create a so-called moderate opposition, the “National Syrian Army.”
The cost of recruitment in each faction is defined by the US after bargaining with field commanders, which is why income differences can be considerable among militants from different groups. On October 29, in clashes between two militant groups, thirteen refugees were killed and over twenty were injured, the Reconciliation Center for Syria said.
“The military base was established by the US in April 2017 near the town of Tanf on the Syria-Iraq border has also become a problem for Syrian forces fighting the terrorist group Daesh (ISIL). The United States justified the setting up of a military base there in terms of the need to carry out operations against Daesh; however, since the establishment of the base, there have been no reports of American anti-terrorist operations,” Sputnik reported, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The ministry’s spokesman of the Russian Defense Ministry has warned that refugees living in the Rukban camp are being used as a “human shield” for the US military base near Tanf. The base has twice been used to strike Syrian government-aligned forces fighting Islamic militants.
Source: Sputnik
