Tens of Thousands Flee Syrian Border Towns as Turkey Bombards Country Following Trump's Green Light

Human rights workers said Friday that 64,000 civilians have fled Syria since Turkey on Wednesday began with President Donald Trump’s tacit approval an airstrike and shelling offensive in the northeastern region of the country.

“If the offensive continues it’s possible a total of 300,000 people could be displaced to already overstretched camps and towns still recovering from the fight against ISIS,” Misty Buswell of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) told the BBC.

“Hostilities will impact and restrict access to humanitarian aid pushing the civilian population, which has already suffered years of violence and displacement, to the brink.”
—Marie Struthers, Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International decried the effects of the offensive on the region in just three days. A hospital in Tel Abyad was forced to close after most of its staff fled the violence, and 4,000 displaced Syrians who had sought refuge in a camp being forced to evacuate once again.

“Hostilities will impact and restrict access to humanitarian aid pushing the civilian population, which has already suffered years of violence and displacement, to the brink,” said Marie Struthers, director of Amnesty’s Europe program. “Turkey must ensure civilians fleeing the conflict can access safer areas including by crossing the border into Turkey to seek international protection.”

The humanitarian group Kurdish Red Crescent reported Thursday night that at least 11 people have been killed in Turkey’s bombing campaign so far, including an 11-year-old boy in the border city of Qamishli.

The Trump administration on Friday gave the Treasury Department broad power to sanction Turkey if its attacks reach a threshold that Trump disapproves of, but the president did not go as far as imposing sanctions.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Friday that the country would risk “serious consequences” if it did not end its attacks, but the warning provoked no sign that Turkey would end the offensive, which has killed at least 277 Kurdish fighters so far, according to The Guardian.