The Wall.St Journal 21Feb2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, February 21, 2020 |A

Abdel Karim Yassin sits by the grave of his nephew, Ahmed, near the Syria-Turkey border. Destruction in Syria’s Idlib province, below.

FROM TOP: AREF TAMMAWI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

old Ahmed, the youngest child.

By the time Ms. Shahoud

headed to the closest hospital,

the toddler’s skin was gray

and cold to the touch. Doctors

couldn’t save him. “My child

was already dead,” she said.

Ms. Shahoud wrapped the

body in a donated blanket to

bury. The grave is a small

mound of dirt surrounded by

rocks. A broken piece of tile

serves as a headstone, where

the child’s name is written in

faded blue marker.

“When you see the children

freezing to death, you burn

your own clothes to warm

them,” said Amun Ahmed, a

53-year-old grandmother of 11.

She, her children and grand-

children crowd a classroom in

a school building being used

as a refuge. They were given a

wood-burning stove but can’t

afford firewood. “We try as

much as we can not to burn

the children’s clothes,” she

said. Some people buy bags of

used clothes, about 30 cents a

pound, to burn for heat.

Even with the Turkish bor-

der closed, fleeing Syrians

continue to head there, in the

hope that it is safer. In one

tent camp, a mural evokes the

Hans Christian Andersen story

of a girl freezing to death.

“Over one million children in

Idlib are facing the same fate

of The Little Match Girl. SAVE

THEM,” reads the mural, done

by Kesh Malek, a Syrian civil

society organization.

Graffiti appears on the

barbed-wire-topped cement

wall Turkey has erected along

its 550-mile border. “Open hu-

manitarian corridors” is one

message in Arabic. Another, in

Turkish, said: “Don’t shoot,

we’re not enemies.”

About half of the nearly

four million people living in

northwest Syria, which in ad-

dition to Idlib province in-

cludes small parts of neigh-

boring Aleppo province, were

displaced from elsewhere.

Vehicles move bumper to

bumper away from the front

lines of Idlib and Aleppo. Most

have no destination other than

escaping the immediate threat

of bombing. The line grows

each day. Pickup trucks are

piled high with possessions.

Roads, too, are targets for air-

strikes, and entire families

have been killed en route.

Parents, helpless to protect

their children, try to reduce the

psychological toll. Abdullah

Mohammad taught his 3-year-

old daughter Salwa to laugh

when she hears an airstrike’s

explosion. In a posted video

now gone viral, the ruddy-faced

girl breaks into peals of laugh-

ter at the sound of an airstrike.

Mr. Mohammad’s eyes widen

for a second, and he turns to

Syrians

Flee Army

Offensive

ing from the center of the coro-
navirus epidemic in China.
While those quarantined ex-
pressed relief and gratitude, the
unprecedented public-health
measure has also resulted in
some unexpected hiccups.
Dr. Henry Walke of the Cen-
ters for Disease Control and
Prevention said many questions
at Travis at first revolved
around medical worries, such
as the possibility of infecting
family and friends. That was to
be expected, health officials
said. Less expected: Evacuees’
questions about getting some
slippers. After a large order of
slippers yielded only about 80

ContinuedfromPageOne

pairs, all in a size medium, the

front desk workers had to

sternly remind people to take

one pair each.

More than 800 people have

been evacuated to the U.S. from

China’s Hubei province, where

the coronavirus epidemic origi-

nated. So far, the virus has

killed more than 2,100 people,

mostly in China, and infected

more than 75,000 globally.

Everyone evacuated is re-

quired to undergo a 14-day

quarantine, most of which

wrapped up this week. Another

300-some evacuees recently ar-

rived in the U.S. from the Dia-

mond Princess cruise ship and

are scheduled to finish their

quarantines in early March.

Two reporters from The Wall

Street Journal were among

those quarantined, one at Tra-

vis, in Fairfield, Calif., and one

at Marine Corps Air Station

Miramar in San Diego.

Evacuees are housed on mil-

itary bases in hotel rooms or in

temporary lodging.

As worry recedes, boredom

sets in.

Pan Jiang, a clothing-store

saleswoman from Portland,

Ore., amused herself by walking

around the hotel grounds at

Travis dressed in one of the

four ball gowns packed in her

suitcase. One day, it was a pale

green number with a beaded

leaf design. The following day,

she opted for a blue floor-

length dress featuring an ex-

travagantly ruffled skirt. “I’m

so bored here.” Ms. Jiang said.

“There’s nothing to do.”

The 27-year-old said she

hoped to cheer up her fellow

evacuees by putting on a daily

fashion show amid the lush

grass and blue skies of North-

ern California. “It’s a reminder

of how lucky we are to have

gotten out,” she added.

In quarantine circles, food is

a perennial topic of conversa-

tion. In an evacuee chat group,

a request for garlic was greeted

with a clapping hands emoji

and the phrase “that’s so good”

in Chinese. At Miramar, one

woman begged for any kind of

hot sauce to eat with the meals.

The next morning, sriracha and

soy sauce were added to the

breakfast table.

“It’s like, leftover airplane

food,” said 33-year-old Blair

Zong, who stocked up on Nacho

Cheese Doritos, Godiva choco-

lates and frozen Kung Pao

chicken on her second day in

quarantine via Amazon. (Pack-

ages can be delivered to the

warehouse on base.)

Luanettee Colebrooke, a 31-

year-old doctoral candidate

from Wuhan, likes to share

photos of new dishes whipped

up by remixing ingredients.

Among her creations: a sand-

wich made by tucking scram-

bled eggs into a croissant from

lunch, and parfaits using gra-

nola bars crumbled on the

breakfast fruit cup and yogurt.

Some expressed reluctance

to voice complaints or make

unwieldy requests, out of ap-

preciation for the staff and vol-

unteers. Lodging and meals are

provided free of charge.

Dan Houlihan, emergency

management specialist with the

Administration of Children and

Families, said the CDC has been

able to fulfill requests for basic

necessities such as toiletries

and baby formula. Condoms

were deemed a necessity and

supplied by the San Diego de-

partment of public health. An

adult skateboard that was re-

quested, he said, was not.

Kimmy McDaniel, co-founder

of Project Strong One, which

has supplied provisions, said

she went to four different gro-

cery stores in her hunt for a

specific Chinese brand of chili

oil. Evacuees applauded when

she dropped off frozen dump-

lings, then later puzzled over

how exactly to cook them with-

out dinnerware or stoves.

At Travis, a game of kickball

was put on hold while a U.S.

Marshal went to retrieve the

ball from out-of-quarantine-

bounds. An outdoor showing

of “Frozen” was arranged for

Valentine’s Day—with movie-

goers spaced out in accor-

dance with the 6-foot distance

requirement.

At Miramar, a Marine band

played patriotic marches and

jazz classics for a crowd that

cheered and took photos

through two separate fences.

“That was the weirdest con-

cert I’ve ever been to,” said

Kevin Schlei, a composer and

electronic musician from Wis-

consin. “And I went to a con-

cert in an abandoned milk fac-

tory.”

Nearly 370 people, including
97 children, died in northwest
Syria this year, according to
the White Helmets, a Syrian
civil-defense group operating
in opposition-held areas.
“If this goes on,” Mr. Low-
cock said, “Idlib will become
the world’s biggest pile of rub-
ble, strewn with the corpses of
a million children.”
Since their escape, the Ak-
oush family has moved five
times, trying to outrun air-
strikes and advancing forces.
“I feel like this is the end,
the army will advance and kill
us all and that will be the end
of the story,” said Mr. Akoush,
30 years old. “We no longer
have hope for anything other
than a quick death, that’s it.
That’s all we ask for.”
Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, whose country
houses nearly four million Syr-
ian refugees, has threatened to
launch a full attack on Syrian
government forces if Mr. Assad
doesn’t halt the military offen-
sive. Turkey has sent more than
10,000 troops and more than
2,000 pieces of artillery, tanks
and armored vehicles into Idlib,
Turkish media reported. Turkey
reported 16 soldiers killed, in-
cluding two Thursday in air-
strikes.
“An operation in Idlib is im-
minent,” Mr. Erdogan said in a
speech Wednesday. “We are
counting down, we are issuing
our final warnings.”
Mr. Assad has dismissed
Turkey’s threats. “The battle
to liberate the countryside of
Aleppo and Idlib will continue
regardless of some empty
sound bubbles coming from
the north,” he said Monday,
according to Syrian state me-
dia. “The battle for liberating
all Syrian soil, crushing terror-
ism, and achieving stability
will also continue.”
The Syrian government has
characterized the civil war as
a fight against terrorists, a
term it applies to all who op-
pose the regime.
Turkish officials said that
although Mr. Erdogan was pre-
occupied by the risk of an at-
tack on Syrian troops, he was
far more worried about the
political storm at home if mil-
lions more Syrian refugees be-
gan streaming into Turkey.
Mr. Erdogan warned that if
he opened Turkey’s border
with Syria, he wouldn’t keep
refugees and migrants from
heading to Europe. In 2016,
Turkey reached a deal with
European states to curb illegal
migration to the bloc. If Tur-
key opens its doors, Europe
could experience another mi-
gration wave.
Turkey, which backs many
rebel factions, sent a delega-
tion to Russia for talks about a
cease-fire agreement. On
Wednesday, Moscow and An-
kara said the negotiations ha-
ven’t yielded an agreement.

In the cold

Amid the political standoff,
the crisis in northwest Syria
worsens by the day. The
United Nations and aid groups
are struggling to deliver emer-
gency help, but they can’t keep
pace with the growing number
of displaced people needing
food and shelter.
For many, the walls of what
the U.N. describes as the
world’s largest refugee camp
are closing in.

ContinuedfromPageOne

The military offensive dur-

ing Syria’s freezing winter

means people who manage to

escape the bullets and shells

still aren’t safe from the cold.

Winter temperatures fall to

the 30s and 40s overnight.

Without enough tents, many

sleep in the open. At least

seven children have frozen to

death in recent weeks, inter-

national aid groups said.

One father trekked about a

mile through frigid weather to

a hospital, clutching 18-month-

old Iman Laila to his chest,

trying to keep her warm. The

family was staying at a shelter

in an open storefront. The

man thought he could save

her, said Housam Adnan, a

doctor at the hospital, but “he

was carrying her dead body.”

Dr. Adnan fears many more

cases like this will emerge in

the hilly borderlands of north-

ern Syria. The region has long

been replete with tent camps.

Tents, lean-tos and tarps now

sprout in every direction, tem-

porary shelters that provide

little defense against winter.

The family of Mrash Sha-

houd fled home three months

ago and moved into a tent

camp near the Syria-Turkey

border. The family of seven

struggled to keep warm on the

frozen ground. Inside the tent

was a carpet, four small foam

mattresses and a few blankets.

It wasn’t enough for 3-year-

his daughter: “It makes you

laugh, doesn’t it?” Between

chuckles, she answers, “Yeah.”

The family escaped from

Saraqib, which was captured

by regime forces. They moved

to a friend’s house near the

Turkish border, where nearby

airstrikes continue.

Mr. Mohammad, 32, strug-

gles to hide his fear of the

bombardments. “Of course it’s

not something that’s funny at

all. It’s horrible,” he said.

“Maybe the bomb will fall on

top of us. But at least we’ll die

while laughing.”

Scorched earth

Syria’s opposition rebels at

one time controlled nearly half

of the country and Idlib was a

stronghold of both the armed

and peaceful opposition to the

Assad regime. Rebels in Idlib

envisioned the province as a

foothold in their push to take

control of the entire country.

Instead, rebels and antigov-

ernment activists have been

forced from one area after an-

other over the past few years,

retreating from the regime’s

scorched-earth offensive—the

use of barrel bombs and chem-

ical weapons, the targeting of

hospitals and clinics. Many

ended up in the northwest

corner of Syria, knowing that

regime forces would arrive

there one day.

In September 2018, Russia

and Turkey brokered a cease-

fire agreement for Idlib to

forestall a military offensive.

The deal required that an ex-

tremist militant group with

ties to al Qaeda withdraw

from a demilitarized buffer

zone along the front line. The

group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,

instead expanded areas of con-

trol in the province last year.

The Assad regime, with

Russia’s backing, responded

with a military assault that in-

tensified in December.

As in previous Syrian mili-

tary campaigns, hospitals,

medical workers and emer-

gency responders in rebel-held

territory have come under at-

tack, part of a regime’s strat-

egy to weaken resistance, forc-

ing surrender and withdrawal.

In the past week, eight

medical facilities have been

damaged from airstrikes;

seven of them have had to sus-

pend operations, according to

the Syrian American Medical

Society, which supports medi-

cal work in northern Syria.

Rebel fighter Naeem Uth-

man, 30, spent years battling

Syrian regime forces in the

Damascus suburb of eastern

Ghouta before deciding to

leave his home after the oppo-

sition was defeated there.

As the regime took control

of Ghouta in 2018, residents

questioned those headed for

Idlib instead of surrendering.

Mr. Uthman said.

“They would question why

we would go there if these ar-

eas would also eventually be

takenoverbytheregime,”he

said, speaking near the front

line in Idlib. “But we suffered

a lot, and we have a hatred

against the regime and we

won’t back down.”

Mr. Uthman, his wife and

their three young children

have moved six times while

living in Idlib, fleeing attacks.

His eldest child, Habiba, 6, has

known nothing but a life on

the run, he said. The family

has been living three weeks in

an unfinished apartment with-

out windows or doors.

When Habiba now hears the

sound of fighter planes over-

head, she turns to her mother:

“Come on, Mama, pack our

things, let’s leave.”

—Nazih Osseiran and David

Gauthier-Villars contributed

to this article.

Losing Ground to Assad Regime Forces

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Areas of control in Syria

Source: Jane's Conflict Monitor

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Jan. 2015 Sept. 2018 Feb. 2020

Evacuees

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