Hundreds of displaced Syrians flee camps as inter-rebel fighting kills 13

Hundreds of Syrian displaced families have fled their camps in Syria’s rebel-held northwest amid fierce fighting between two opposition groups.

Clashes have broken out in the area of Afrin between the hardline Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group and factions from the Turkish-backed "Syrian National Army" (SNA), killing at least 13 people, most of them fighters

Local sources told The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that one civilian woman was killed by shrapnel from a rocket which landed in the Burj Abdalu area near Afrin during fierce clashes between HTS and the SNA.

They said that HTS managed to take control of the village of Qarzihal, while clashes between the groups were ongoing around the village of Tarandah.

Displaced people fled from the Kuwait Al-Rahma refugee camp as a result of the clashes, heading towards Azaz, which is under the control of Turkish-backed rebel forces.

Residents of several other refugee camps were also forced from their tents and shelters as a result of the clashes.

Muhannad Tamer, a resident of the Sufuhen refugee camp which is near the boundary between areas under SNA and HTS control in northern Idlib province, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, “Fear has overcome us, and what we’re living through today resembles our first displacement from our villages to the camps.”

Mohammed Hallaj, the head of the Syrian First Responders’ Team, said that 800 families had fled their refugee camps as a result of the fighting.

"The fleeing [of refugees] is chaotic, it's only goal is escape from death. Some families have left on foot because there are no vehicles to take them to a safer place," Tamer added.

Around three million people live in Syria’s rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib and more than half of them have been displaced from other parts of Syria.

Elsewhere in Syria, clashes broke out around the city of Al-Bab, which is held by Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups, between SNA forces and the Al-Hamza rebel group.

The fighting broke out after a prominent activist and his pregnant wife were killed in the city on Saturday.

The SNA arrested members of the Al-Hamza group who were accused of responsibility of the killing, leading Al-Hamza to bomb Al-Bab in retaliation.