75 pct of Damascus Palestinian camp under Daesh control

By Muhammad Misto, Adham Kako and Levent Tok

ALEPPO / ANKARA (AA) - The terrorist group Daesh is in control of 75 percent of a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Syria’s capital Damascus, according to local sources.

Anadolu Agency correspondents at Yarmouk Camp -- a 2.11-square-kilometre area eight kilometers (five miles) from the center of Damascus populated by Palestinians -- spoke to local sources who asked not to be named due to security concerns.

Since Feb. 14, Daesh terrorists carried out two separate attacks in areas in the camp under the control of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, an armed anti-regime group.

After the attacks, carried out by bomb-laden vehicles in Haifa and Raja squares, Daesh took control of a Palestinian hospital and nearby areas.

This reduced the areas under Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham control to around 15 percent.

Since the attacks, Daesh now controls 75 percent of Camp Yarmouk, which has around 5,000 civilians living in it.

According to UN data, before the civil war broke out in 2011, there were over half a million Palestinians living in 12 large camps in Syria.

Due to the oppression and attacks by the Assad regime, Palestinians now seek refuge in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon instead.