- Title: Displaced by war, thousands of Syrian Kurds flee to Iraq
- Date: 22nd October 2019
- Summary: DOHUK, IRAQ (OCTOBER 22, 2019 (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TENTS IN REFUGEE CAMP HOUSING DISPLACED SYRIAN KURDS VARIOUS OF CHILDREN GATHERED BY TENTS IN CAMP SYRIAN DISPLACED WOMEN WALKING AT THE CAMP VARIOUS OF SYRIAN DISPLACED WOMEN WASHING CLOTHES VARIOUS OF GIRLS OUTSIDE TENT DISPLACED SYRIAN MEN WALKING IN CAMP (SOUNDBITE (Arabic) SYRIAN DISPLACED KURD, IDRIS MOHAMMED, SAYING: ''The ceasefire is a mere game, the scheme is more than this. It targets all Syria, especially the Kurdish province of al-Jazira. We are not optimistic. The international powers have concealed things at the expense of people. And this is obvious to the Syrian people who will pay the price.'' VARIOUS OF DISPLACED KURDISH MAN CARRYING POT FILLED WITH FOOD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DISPLACED KURD, ASAD ISMAEL, SAYING: ''Our houses are still destroyed, people are still displaced. People don't have money. So many people left for other countries.'' VARIOUS OF CHILD STANDING BY TENTS OF CAMP, HOLDING FRUIT WOMEN AND CHILDREN WALKING IN CAMP
- Embargoed: 5th November 2019 18:37
- Keywords: Displaced Kurds Syria Iraq
- Location: DOHUK, IRAQ
- City: DOHUK, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA001B26KU9Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Thousands of Syrian Kurds waited in refugee camps in neighbouring Iraq on Tuesday (October 22) having fled across the border in hope of escaping the violence of the sudden Turkish cross-border offensive.
Some 80,000 children alone have been uprooted, U.N. officials said on Tuesday. Only around 7,100 Syrian Kurds have made it over the border to neighbouring Iraq; the rest are stuck mostly in Kurdish-run Syrian towns like Hasakah.
According to the United Nations, more than 176,000 have fled their homes since Turkey launched its assault against Kurdish militia after President Donald Trump said he was withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria's northeast.
Much of the northeast was controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whose main component is the YPG militia, seen by Turkey as a terrorist group because of its links to Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey.
On Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan struck a deal to remove Kurdish YPG fighters and their weapons from the border with Turkey. The deal endorses the return of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces to the border alongside Russian troops, replacing the Americans who had patrolled the region for years with their former Kurdish allies.
(Production: Kawa Omar, Mohammed Al-Rmahi, Maher Nazeh, Mohammed Katfan) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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