1000s Trapped in Daesh-Held Raqqa, Northern Aleppo amid Fighting

Local Editor

Hundreds of thousands of people in Syria had been trapped in the Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] -held northeastern city of Raqqa as well as the outskirts of Aleppo as both cities face offensives by government and Kurdish forces.

Rights groups said 300,000 residents are trapped in the city of Raqqa in a province with the same name as Kurdish forces had launched an offensive to liberate it from Daesh, AFP reported Saturday.

Nearly 100,000 others are also reported stranded following an offensive by Daesh terrorists to regain territory lost to Syrian forces in Aleppo Province along the Turkish border, according to the rights groups.

An anti-Daesh activist group called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently [RBSS] said the residents of the city had been paying smugglers $400 for each person to facilitate their escape.

Raqqa is the terrorist group's self-proclaimed "capital." Daesh took over the city in March 2013.

During the offensive they launched in northern Aleppo, Daesh terrorists cut a major road between the militant-held towns of Azaz and Marea close to the Turkish border, besieging 15,000 people in Marea and triggering a potential "disaster," according to Azaz-based journalist Maamoun Khateeb.

Pablo Marco, the regional operations manager for Doctors without Borders [MSF], also said, "We are terribly concerned... about the estimated 100,000 people trapped between the Turkish border and active front lines."

Daesh terrorists had been losing ground in both Syria and Iraq, where they have been involved in a campaign of terror over the past years.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team