CBN News: Wounded, Dehydrated, and Sick: Syrians Flee Last Remnants of ISIS Only to Face Brutal Conditions in the Desert

13 February 2019

Syria

Recently, Dave Eubank spoke with Chuck Holton of CBN News about the situation in Syria where families are fleeing the last ISIS stronghold there. Click the photo above for the full article or find another link at the end of the excerpt below.

From the article:

SOUTHERN SYRIA – The Islamic State once controlled an area the size of Great Britain across Syria and Iraq, but now they’ve been pushed back to barely two square kilometers.

US Department of Defense officials say the end of their reign of terror in Syria is only days away.

In Southern Syria within sight of the Iraqi border, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have set the stage for the last stand of the ISIS caliphate in that country.

The fighting has been brutal, and while the SDF has tried to evacuate civilians from the battle area, ISIS has thwarted those efforts and is using up to ten thousand civilians as human shields. For those who do escape, their ordeal is far from over.

Wounded, Malnourished, and Sick

Syrian Defense Forces have set up a checkpoint about a mile from the forward line of troops, the front lines against ISIS. Refugees have walked to this point after getting across ISIS lines.

When CBN reporter Chuck Holton was there, he saw women and children in bad shape. Some of them were wounded, the children were dehydrated, malnourished and sick.

New Threat: Women Wearing Explosives

They were receiving some initial medical attention. One thing the Syrian Defenses are watching out for, however, is women who may be wearing suicide vests. Five women wearing explosives blew themselves up on one single day recently. That has made for an intense situation as the women now presenting themselves at the checkpoint are checked by female SDF soldiers.

“We’ve still got to just be careful and hope that these women love their children enough that they are not going to do anything stupid like that,” Holton said.

“They will be put on buses or some sort of transportation from here and taken to an internally displaced persons camp further away from the fighting,” he added.

No Food, Water, or Shelter for 200 Miles

But between the front line and the nearest refugee camp, there is nothing but more than 200 miles of arid Syrian desert. There’s no food, water, or shelter.

Small Group of Christians Offer Help

A group of Christians has stepped into this gap. They are people who make it their mission to travel to frontlines around the globe and help people at their point of greatest need. They call themselves the Free Burma Rangers, and their founder, Dave Eubank, has been working on the front lines in this region since 2015.

“God is sending a mighty river into Syria to change things,” Eubank said. “We’re not a river, man – we’re a drop. We’re all drops in God’s rain, and it forms a river, and you and I may not live to see the day of change, but it’s coming because God cares about these people.”

Full article and video available online here.