Three people, including a woman and a child, were killed in an internally displaced refugee camp in al-Hol, Syria, during clashes between Kurdish forces and Islamic State (IS) jihadists, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today.
The heavily populated al-Holl, controlled by the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration and home to some 56,000 people according to the UN, has been the scene of escape attempts and attacks before.
In the camp, described as a "jihadist powder keg," in addition to foreign jihadist families, there are families of displaced Syrian and Iraqi refugees, some of whom continue to maintain ties to Islamic State.
Weapons are sometimes smuggled into the camp to Islamic State supporters.
RPG rockets were fired from inside the camp, "causing the death of a woman, a child () and an IS cell member," the Syrian Observatory said.
The UK-based NGO, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria, added that four women and six children were wounded.
"One of our patrols was targeted last night, Monday 28 March, in al-Hol camp," Kurdish security force Assayesh said.
[BR][BR]Assayesh stressed that they opened fire after coming under fire from Kalashnikovs, pistols and RPG rockets, "killing one member of the mercenaries and wounding others," without reporting any civilian deaths.
Last week, marking three years of IS's defeat and loss of territory in Iraq, the Kurds regretted the international community's "inaction" against the jihadist group's efforts to expand into Syria and Iraq, despite repeated Kurdish exhortations.
Most Western countries refuse to repatriate their citizens from these camps, accepting citizens back to the countries in dribs and drabs for fear of possible attacks inside their countries.
Source: Proto Thema
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