Turkish Drones Target Security Guards at Al-Hol Camp, ISIS Families Try to Escape

A general view of al-Hol camp in Syria. Reuters file photo
A general view of al-Hol camp in Syria. Reuters file photo
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Turkish Drones Target Security Guards at Al-Hol Camp, ISIS Families Try to Escape

A general view of al-Hol camp in Syria. Reuters file photo
A general view of al-Hol camp in Syria. Reuters file photo

Two Turkish strikes Wednesday targeted forces guarding the exterior of Syria's Al-Hol detention camp, amid a state of chaos and fear among ISIS families and attempts by some of them to flee, a war monitor said.

The camp is home to over 50,000 people including relatives of suspected ISIS militants.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the number of airstrikes fired by Turkish drones on areas held by the Autonomous Administration had amounted to 15 on Wednesday.

A Turkish drone attacked two positions in al-Malkiyah countryside in far north eastern Syria, the SOHR said.

In the first attack, the drone shelled positions in Shirk village, and in the second attack the drone attacked a fuel station in Ala Qos area in al-Malkiyah countryside near borders between Syria and Iraq.

A Turkish drone also hit power transmission station near a coronavirus hospital in al-Qamishli, while ambulances rushed to the targeted area.

The London-based war monitor had previously reported that a Turkish drone targeted a checkpoint for the (Kurdish) Asayesh security forces in Abu Rasin town in Hasaka’s northwestern countryside, injuring members of the checkpoint.

Another Turkish drone also targeted a house in Kararshak village in the countryside of Ain al-Arab (Kobani).

Turkish drones further targeted an oil station in Mashuq village and the Kil Hasnak station in al-Qahtaniyah countryside.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.