Islamic State Seizes Control of 90 Percent of Yarmouk Refugee Camp Near Damascus

The Islamic State launched an offensive on the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk last week and has since seized control of 90 percent of the camp on the outskirts of Damascus, the AFP reports.

The Islamic State controls large swathes of territory in eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq.

Control of Yarmouk gives the group its largest foothold to date in Damascus, putting it just a few kilometers from President Bashar al-Assad’s seat of power.

Palestinian officials and Syrian activists said ISIS was collaborating with rivals from al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra. The two groups have battled each other elsewhere in Syria, but appear to be cooperating in the offensive on Yarmouk.

However, Jabhat al-Nusra issued a statement on Sunday denying the claim and said it was taking a neutral stance.

The United Nations has voiced its grave concern about the safety and protection of Palestinians in the camp, who have been besieged by fighting between Syrian government forces and rebel groups since 2012.

“The situation in Yarmouk is an affront to the humanity of all of us, a source of universal shame,” U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Chris Gunness said.

“Never has the hour been more desperate [in Yarmouk] … Men, women and children – Syrians and Palestinians alike – are cowering in their battered homes in profound fear, desperate for security, food and water … as hostilities continue,” UNRWA said in a statement.

Some 18,000 civilians remain trapped inside the camp, facing starvation, malnutrition and disease and with inadequate access to clean water and electricity.

By Sunday, nearly 1,500 civilians had fled the camp for the nearby opposition-controlled towns of Beit Sahem and Yalda.

Activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also accused Assad’s forces of dropping barrel bombs on the densely populated camp as ISIS tightened its hold.

Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis, a rebel militia made up of Palestinian and Syrian fighters from the camp, has been leading the battle against ISIS, along with some Free Syrian Army fighters, since the group stormed the southern side of the camp last week.

“Yarmouk’s plight also illustrates the tangle of armed combatants fighting one another and Assad’s forces in Syria,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Although Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis formerly battled factions loyal to the government, the attack on its cadres by Islamic State has pushed some of its fighters to now ally themselves with pro-government factions, according to camp leaders.”

Second Round of Peace Talks Begins in Moscow

The Syrian government and some opposition figures will begin a second set of peace talks in Moscow on Monday that focus on humanitarian issues, Reuters reports.

Russia, a longtime ally of Assad, is hosting the meetings in Moscow on April 6–9 between some of the more moderate Syrian opposition groups and envoys from the government.

Expectations of any type of breakthrough are low after a first round of peace talks in January failed to produce concrete results.

Many Syrian opposition members, including the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition (SNC), did not attend the first set of talks, saying they would take part only in meetings that led to the removal of the Syrian president from power, while the regime insisted that the focus of the negotiation should be on countering “terrorism” – its term for armed resistance to its rule.

The SNC has said it will not attend the second round of talks, scheduled to last until Thursday, either. Moscow has not said which opposition figures will attend.

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Photo Courtesy of AP Images