The Islamic State Prepares for Offensive in Northeastern Syria

The Islamic State is preparing for a possible offensive on a city in northeastern Syria near the border with Iraq, where it remains a threat despite losing control of the city of Tikrit in Iraq earlier this month, Reuters reports.

Hassakeh province, located in the northeastern corner of Syria, is of significant importance to the fight against the Islamic State because it is a strategic gateway that would help the Islamic State consolidate control over territory in both Iraq and Syria.

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia has achieved several victories against the Islamic State this year – ousting it from Kobani in January, securing several villages within the provincial boundaries of the Islamic State’s de-facto capital of Raqqa, and taking two towns in Hassakeh province with the support of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.

However, the Islamic State remains a danger, Redur Xelil, YPG spokesman, told Reuters.

The group aims to secure control over the provincial capital, Hassakeh city, and the town of Tel Tamr, a strategic area because of its location near the Iraqi border and a key YPG supply route.

Xelil noted that there was a big “mobilization effort” outside Hassakeh city.

“South of Hasaka [Hassakeh] there are areas that Daesh [ISIS] controls entirely. There is a big Daesh mobilization outside the city, and there are big fears of an attack on Hasaka city.”

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the YPG and Islamic State are engaged in daily clashes near Tel Tamr, while the Syrian army and Islamic State battle in areas west and east of Hassakeh city.

The group is still believed to be holding nearly 220 Assyrian Christians it kidnapped from Tel Tamr in February.

The Islamic State is the largest jihadist group in Syria, controlling large swathes of territory in the east and north of the country.

In recent weeks, the group has launched offensives beyond its eastern strongholds, encroaching on territory in the west of the country.

Elsewhere in the country, fierce clashes erupted between Syrian government forces and opposition fighters in the south of the country, killing dozens on both sides as rebel factions regained much of the ground they had lost in the province of Daraa on Monday, AP reports.

On Monday, Syrian government troops had captured several villages in Daraa and cut a vital rebel supply line used by opposition fighters to transfer goods from Jordan.

Opposition fighters and members of the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra have made major gains in southern Syria in recent weeks, seizing a key border crossing with Jordan and the ancient town of Bosra al-Sham earlier this month.

U.N. Official Calls for Wealthier Countries to Resettle Syrian Refugees

A U.N. official has called on wealthier countries to come up with a more comprehensive plan to resettle Syrian refugees over the course of five years, following alarming ongoing reports of deaths at sea as thousands try to cross the Mediterranean in search of safety, the Guardian reports.

The U.N.’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Francois Crepeau, said that Europe’s failure to act on Syria had created a market for smugglers.

“We know a great number of Syrians in particular are going to leave these countries and if we don’t provide any official mechanism for them to do so, they will resort to smugglers. The inaction of Europe is actually what creates the market for smugglers,” Crepeau told the Guardian.

Syria is the worst refugee crisis in decades. Nearly four million refugees have poured into the countries bordering Syria – namely, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The strain on their resources has forced many of Syria’s neighbors to shut their borders to refugees and has prompted calls for industrialized countries to help share the burden.

“We could collectively offer to resettle one million Syrians over the next five years. For a country like the U.K., this would probably be around 14,000 Syrians a year for five years. For Canada, it would mean less than 9,000 a year for five years – a drop in the bucket. For Australia, it would probably be less than 5,000 per year for five years,” he said.

Crepeau’s comments come after E.U. leaders held an emergency meeting in Brussels amid news of a shipwreck off Libya last weekend that authorities believe could have killed more than 800 migrants.

“If confirmed it would be the highest known loss of migrants’ lives in a single incident in the Mediterranean,” the Guardian writes.

Crepeau called on the West to rethink their policies toward Syrian refugees and said that a new plan would allow them to apply from places such as Istanbul, Amman and Beirut to come to Europe, North America and Australia “for a meaningful chance to resettle, instead of paying thousands of euros only to die with their children in the Mediterranean.”

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• The New York Times: U.N. Calls on Western Nations to Shelter Syrian Refugees
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• Reuters: U.S. Senators Call for Humanitarian Safe Zones in Syria