Feb 18, 2020

MANBIJ, Syria — Families displaced from Idlib province continue to arrive in Manbij, fleeing the fierce fighting between Russian-backed Syrian regime forces on one side and Syrian opposition factions and jihadist groups on the other.

Thirty-five displaced families made it to Manbij in Aleppo province Feb. 3, according to the Manbij Military Council. The media office of the Northern Democratic Brigade published a video Jan. 31 on its Youtube channel showing another 80 families arriving.

“There are large batches of people arriving in Manbij on a daily basis, so it is difficult to count their numbers," Abu Omar al-Idlibi, commander of the Northern Democratic Brigade, told Al-Monitor. The brigade is affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-Arab alliance that controls the area.

Commander Mazlum Kobane tweeted Feb. 6 that thousands of displaced people have traveled east from Idlib to the safe SDF areas, adding that more people were still expected to arrive.

Making the situation in Idlib even more difficult, some 550,000 Syrians had been previously displaced to Idlib from other areas and now must flee again. The United Nations said Feb. 13 that 140,000 people had been displaced from northwest Syria just in the three previous days, many of them futilely headed west to the closed Turkish border.