IS enters Palestinian camp in Damascus, Jordan closes border

ISLAMIC State (IS) militants infiltrated a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus yesterday, marking the deepest foray yet by the extremist group into the capital, seat of President Bashar Assad’s power, Syrian opposition activists and Palestinian officials said.

Jordan, meanwhile, closed its only functioning border crossing with Syria, following heavy clashes on the Syrian side between rebels and government forces.

Islamic State fighters, who control large swaths of territory in northern Syria, entered the Yarmouk camp from the nearby Hajar Aswad neighborhood in southern Damascus and were clashing with a Palestinian group inside the camp. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the IS group took control of large parts of the camp.

If they gain full control of the camp, they can potentially threaten the heart of the capital.

Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus, has been under government siege for nearly two years. UN aid workers have been sending food parcels into the camp, where thousands of civilians remain trapped and in desperate need of food and medicine.

The camp had witnessed fighting in the past between government forces and militants who control much of the camp.

The Observatory reported heavy clashes in the camp between IS fighters and members of the Palestinian faction called Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis.

Anwar Raja, the spokesman for the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, said that IS fighter entered the camp from the nearby neighborhood of Hajar Aswad where they have been based for months. He added that yesterday’s push into the camp came in coordination between IS and their rivals in the Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s branch in Syria.

“The Nusra Front opened the road for them in order to infiltrate the camp and several hours ago they entered Yarmouk,” Raja said by telephone. It was not immediately clear why Nusra would facilitate the entry of IS into the camp.