Fighters proclaiming allegiance to Islamic State on Friday have seized more neighborhoods in the vast camp for Palestinian refugees on the outskirts of Damascus, a bid to capture the group's first major foothold close to Bashar al-Assad's seat of power, activists and monitoring group said.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS militants, who waged an offensive on the embattled camp last Wednesday, have made more gains against Aknaf Beit al-Maqdes Battalions, in time Syria regime warplanes keep its aerial bombardment on the camp.
Islamic State fighters already control swathes of eastern Syria and northern Iraq and are facing an international campaign of air strikes led by the United States. Until now they did not have a major presence in the area around the capital, where insurgents have mainly been loyal to other groups, according to Reuters.
Hassan Hassan, an analyst and author of a book about Islamic State, told Reuters the group had long wanted a foothold close to the capital but that it was unlikely to be able to storm the center.
"The regime has established strong checkpoints and infrastructure to prevent forces from actually getting inside Damascus. But they are edging closer," Hassan said.
The Yarmouk refugee camp, home to half a million Palestinians before the conflict began in 2011, has been held by anti-Assad insurgents and besieged by government troops since the early days of the war. It is a few kilometers from the heart of Damascus, which is still firmly in government hands.
The United Nations said it was extremely concerned about the safety and protection of Syrian and Palestinian civilians there. It estimates the population of Yarmouk at about 18,000, with most of its residents having long since fled. (With Reuters)
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