‘DAMASCUS (Mideast Discourse) — While the COVID-19 pandemic has taken center stage in the media, little attention is being paid to a tragedy playing out in southeastern Syria. Far away from the western media coverage of the “Islamic State of Idlib”, the scene is set in a desolate area on the border between Syria and Iraq, adjacent to the illegal U.S. military base of Al Tanf. The Rukban Camp holds 13,500 displaced Syrian civilians and 6,000 armed militant terrorists of Maghawir Al-Thawra and their families.
On March 28, the Russian-Syrian Coordination Committee released a statement in Damascus, in which they exposed U.S. support for the terrorists who control the camp. Under the guise of humanitarian aid, the U.S. has coerced the UN into complicity. UN aid trucks, according to the statement, are being used to deliver not only food and supplies to the suffering civilians but also arms and ammunition to Maghawir Al-Thawra who administer the camp. The U.S. uses the residents of the camp as a pretext to continue its illegal occupation of the area, claiming the U.S. troops are protecting the displaced civilians living at the camp.
The situation in the camp is dire, as the terrorists are in complete control, even deciding who eats, and who starves. According to the joint statement, many civilians have been evacuatedfrom the camp and relocated to government-controlled areas that are safe and have free medical care facilities under the Syrian Ministry of Health, who work in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the U.S.-backed terrorists have prevented some civilians from leaving by threatening them with dire consequences based on misinformation. Maghawir Al-Thawra is benefitting from the suffering civilians trapped in the camp as hostages.
The ‘Russian Centre for Syrian Reconciliation’ said in September 2019 that the Rukban Camp is controlled by an illegally armed militia, and they had refused to let UN buses inside to evacuate those who needed to be evacuated, instead insisting on using the civilians as human shields. Maghawir Al-Thawra had seized a large cargo delivered by the UN and the Syrian Red Crescent and the confiscated goods were warehoused by the terrorists.’
Read more: US Accused of Using Food Aid to Smuggle Weapons to Militants in Syria’s Rukban Refugee Camp
