Alwaght- The US has isolated more than 50,000 Syrian refugees after sealing off a 55-kilometer area around its base at al-Tanf, a strategic point on the border with Iraq, Russian Defense Ministry stated.
The Russian ministry issued a statement on Monday saying that the US has given no access to international organizations to deliver food and medical assistance to the Rukban refugee camp located inside the sealed area, despite earlier consultations.
"Having closed a 55-kilometer zone around the US base at at-Tanf, the US force has created a territory where, according to various estimates, more than 50,000 people are staying in isolation," the ministry stated, adding "It is an unprecedented situation of long-lasting hindrance to humanitarian assistance to those in need. The refugee camp is deprived of the possibility to have enough food and professional medical assistance, to ensure classes to children."
Al-Tanf region which includes a border crossing with the same name is on a border triangle that links Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. The US repeatedly warned the advancing Syrian forces to keep away from the border area, and twice bombed them as they kept creeping to the strategic border crossing.
The US and Britain deployed forces and heavy military equipment to the border area when in March 2016 fighters from the US-backed Syrian militant groups seized control of the area from the ISIS. The terrorist group had captured the crossing in May 2015.
The stated US aim behind military deployment to the border region has been supporting the the anti-Damascus militants in the face of ISIS fighters. But the analysts have a different argument, asserting that without any doubt Washington seeks setting up a buffer zone between the Syrian and Iraqi territories, a measure that will bar the two countries' armies from joining forces and stepping up campaign against terrorism in a swathe of cross-border territory.
