Yarmuk, An Epicentre Of Syria's Bloody Conflict

Poverty and exile, siege and starvation, ,militant rule and government shelling -- few places have seen more suffering in Syria's seven year, atrocity-filled war than the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk

Beirut, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2018 ) :Poverty and exile, siege and starvation, ,militant rule and government shelling -- few places have seen more suffering in Syria's seven year, atrocity-filled war than the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk.

A striking 2014 picture of tired, gaunt-looking residents massing among the ruins for a food distribution drew comparisons became a symbol of the Syrian conflict. The gutted neighbourhood in southern Damascus, which is now the Islamic State group's last urban redoubt in Syria or Iraq, was once Syria's biggest Palestinian refugee camp, home to around 160,000 people.

Years of crippling siege and bombardment by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, whose presidential compound is visible from the camp, had already sent tens of thousands of them into a second exile.

Yarmuk is one of the closest spots to central Damascus to have been controlled by IS. After months of sporadic shelling as it concentrated its efforts on retaking the rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, the resurgent regime launched a final offensive last week to retake Yarmuk.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, around 1,000 IS fighters remain in Yarmuk and the adjacent neighbourhoods of Hajar al-Aswad, Tadamun and Qadam.