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ISIS seizes 90 percent of refugee camp near Syrian capital

by Mark Hensch - 04/04/15 10:27 AM ET

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on Saturday made major gains in Syria by conquering most of a refugee enclave near Damascus.

Reuters reported the radical group now controls 90 percent of the camp in Yarmouk. ISIS is now knocking at the doors of Syrian President Bashar Assad, only miles away in Syria’s capital.

The United Nations estimates approximately 18,000 civilians find themselves trapped between Assad’s forces and ISIS militias. Britain’s Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added Syrian jets had bombed ISIS positions near the camp Saturday.

{mosads}“The situation in Yarmouk is an affront to the humanity of all of us, a source of universal shame,” U.N. Relief and Works Agency spokesperson Chris Gunness said.

“Yarmouk is a test, a challenge for the international community,” he continued. “We must not fail. The credibility of the international system itself is at stake.”

ISIS launched its assault on Yarmouk on Wednesday. The terrorist organization is looking to grasp more territory from Assad’s government and other rebel factions in the troubled Middle Eastern nation.

ISIS fighters mainly encountered Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis forces in Yarmouk, a group largely comprised of Palestinian and Syrian refugees opposing Assad’s dictatorship.

Tayseer Abu Baker, head of the Palestinian Liberation Front in Syria, told Reuters on Saturday that ISIS had killed 21 fighters and civilians in Yarmouk since Friday.

The Islamists are widely thought to have partnered with the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s Syrian chapter, during their campaign against the camp.

“Some families are trying to exit the camp but with Islamic State snipers on rooftops of high buildings, that is very difficult,” Baker said.

Yarmouk housed roughly half a million displaced Palestinians before the Syrian Civil War erupted in 2011. The conflict has since killed 220,000 people and displaced millions of Syrians.

ISIS rules chunks of eastern Syria as part of its so-called “global caliphate.” The U.S. has led airstrikes on the group there despite its stated opposition to Assad’s government as well.

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