ISIS-Palestinian battle drives refugees from camp in Syrian capital

Civilians trapped in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria's capital fled to safer areas Saturday amid intense government shelling and clashes between Palestinian armed factions and Islamic militants who have taken over most of the camp, Syrian activists said.

A Damascus-based Palestinian official, Khaled Abdul-Majid, said the ISIS militants controlled about half of the Yarmouk camp, located on the southern edge of the Syrian capital.

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ISIS militants stormed the camp on Wednesday, marking the extremist group's deepest foray yet into the capital. Palestinian officials and Syrian activists said they were working with rivals from the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front. The two groups have fought bloody battles against each other in other parts of Syria, but appear to be co-operating in the attack on Yarmouk.

ISIS's presence in Yarmouk gives it an important foothold only a few kilometres away from President Bashar al-Assad's seat of power. It also gives the group a potential sanctuary where U.S.-led coalition forces were unlikely to strike because of the camp's proximity to Damascus.

Camp besieged

The United Nations says about 18,000 civilians, including a large number of children, are trapped in Yarmouk. The camp has been under government siege for nearly two years, leading to starvation and illnesses caused by lack of medical aid. The camp has also witnessed several rounds of ferocious fighting between government forces and militants.

Most of the camp's estimated 160,000 inhabitants fled in late 2012 as clashes erupted between pro- and anti-Assad Palestinian gunmen many to overcrowded and destitute Palestinian refugee camps in neighbouring Lebanon. Only the poorest remained behind.

After militants advanced into northeastern districts of the camp overnight Saturday, many residents fled the fighting to safer districts in the south, activists said. Islamic State militants took up sniper positions on rooftops, they added.

An activist based in an area just south of Damascus, Hatem al-Dimashqi, said Saturday that rebel groups have launched a counteroffensive aimed at ousting the militants from the camp. He said a number of factions based inside the camp and in surrounding areas, including Yalda, Babila and Beit Saham, formed a joint operations command to co-ordinate their military action.

More beheadings

Al-Dimashqi, speaking from the edge of Yalda, and a Palestinian official, Abdul-Majid, said ISIS militants beheaded five people, some of them from the anti-Assad group known as Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis, which has fought them in the camp.

In addition to the ground clashes, Syrian forces were shelling the camp. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Syrian government air strikes on Yarmouk, but said there was no immediate word on casualties.

Elsewhere in Syria, activists said militant groups continued to hold at least eight Lebanese truck drivers hostage near a border crossing point with Jordan. The men were taken late Thursday near the Nasib crossing, hours after it was captured by an array of militant groups, including members of the Nusra Front.

Chaos and looting

Chaos and looting took hold Thursday as the rebels took over the crossing the last crossing the Syrian government still controlled along the Jordanian border ransacking duty-free shops and warehouses in the free zone.

"They took every single thing. They stole from the warehouses trucks and trailers, and forklifts," said Rami Ahmad Abu Shehab, a worker in the free zone.

Abdullah Abu Aghalah, a trader in the free zone, said shops in the free zone area lost around $9 million US worth of cars. "We are imploring them to return these cars because so many families depend on them to live. Many employees lost their jobs. All of our investments in the free zone are gone.