Islamic fundamentalist group enters Palestinian refugee camp

onnaedo

April 1, 2015 6:27 PM

Reports say clashes erupted between the militants and groups inside the camp, with IS seizing control of large parts of the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in Damascus.

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ISIS has entered a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, BBC reports.

Reports say clashes erupted between the militants and groups inside the camp, with IS seizing control of large parts of the Palestinian refugee camp Yarmouk in Damascus.

The militants are reported to have entered the camp, which harbours 18,000 Palestinian refugees, from the neighbouring suburb of Hajar Aswad.

UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in a statement said IS "now controls large parts of the camp".

Yarmouk camp was first built for Palestinians fleeing the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and was once considered by many to be the de facto capital of the Palestinian refugee diaspora.

Before the Syrian civil war, it had more than 150,000 refugees living there, with its own mosques, schools and public buildings.

However, fighting government troops and rebel forces have besieged the camp since 2012.

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