Russia urges shutdown of US, YPG-held camps in Syria

Moscow urged Washington yesterday to shut down two refugee camps located in Syrian territories currently under the control of U.S. troops and its ally the PKK's Syrian affiliate, the People's Protection Units (YPG).

Every day of delay in disbanding the Al-Hol and Al-Rukban camps costs up to 10 lives, Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of Russia's National Defense Management Center, told reporters in Moscow.

"We call on the American side to allow the return of [refugees held in] Rukban and al-Hol to their native homes, to eliminate these camps forever, to free the territories in Al-Tanf [southeastern Syria] on the left bank of the Euphrates river," he said.

Since April 2017, the YPG has placed civilians fleeing Daesh terrorists and the family members of Daesh in the Al-Hol camp.

Previously, the U.N. also expressed grave concern over the situation of people living in the YPG-held Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria due to the inhuman conditions. Babor Baloch, the spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said in a news conference that the humanitarian situation in Al-Hol camp, where an estimated 65,000 people are living, was desperate.

Herve Verhoosel, the spokesman of the World Food Program (WFP), also stressed that the organization was worried about tens of thousands of people in the camp, adding that they did not know the exact number of people who had died in the camp.

Complaining about insufficient health facilities in the camp, Tarik Jasarevic, the spokesman of the World Health Organization (WHO), said, "Some 106 children had died upon our arrival or on their way to the camp since 2018, and hundreds of children in the Syrian city of Hasakah were taken to hospitals in the same time." Since April 2017, the YPG terror group has placed civilians fleeing Daesh terrorists and family members of Daesh in the Al-Hol camp. While admitting asylum seekers into the camp, the YPG adopts a humiliating attitude toward the residents. Due to the grave conditions in the camp and inhumane practices, 100 children and 10 women have lost their lives so far. The U.S.' Syria policy, especially its military support for YPG terrorists, has been a cause of tension between Ankara and Washington. Ankara argues that one terrorist group cannot be used to fight another. Turkey sees the YPG as an extension of the PKK, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people in a 30-year terror campaign.

The U.S., however, while listing the PKK as a terrorist group, has opted to continue its steadfast military support for the terrorist organization, by providing truckloads of military supplies and military training, under the pretext of fighting Daesh, despite the repeated warnings of its NATO ally.