LAKE ASSAD, Syria: As US-backed fighters advance on the IS group’s de facto Syrian stronghold Raqa, a waterway “corridor” has become a key supply line, and an escape route for displaced civilians.
An AFP team accompanied fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance that is fighting to capture the strategic town of Tabqa, some 55 km west of Raqa.
Their direct land route from the territory they hold in the north is blocked by the Tabqa dam, which remains under IS control. So instead, they are running supplies across Lake Assad, an enormous reservoir created by the dam, as well as ferrying civilians fleeing Tabqa back across to safety.
The main means of transport is a makeshift ferry, made out of a piece of floating bridge that has been lashed to four small boats, two on each side.
The boats, borrowed from local fishermen and attached with orange rope, drive the “ferry” and its occupants across the lake multiple times a day on an hour-long journey.
On Saturday, several dozen civilians waited on the northern side of the lake, hours after crossing to safety, as fighters loaded up the floating bridge moored near the Jaabar Castle, a local historical site. A woman in her thirties, her face loosely wrapped in a beige headscarf, distributed bread to her children in the back of a pick-up truck.
Nearby, a child and his father stood by the water’s edge, washing their faces after an exhausting trip.
A rusty boat bobbed by them in the shallows.
Many of the arrivals looked exhausted, and some still seemed afraid, wary of their new surroundings.
“We were besieged in Tabqa. The humanitarian situation was really bad,” said Ismail Mohamed, 39, who had arrived hours earlier with his family. “People are hungry and tired. Everyone is psychologically shattered, crushed,” he said.
“When we got on the water, riding the boat, we truly couldn’t believe it, we were so happy.”
As the arrivals waited for permission to move north into SDF-held territory, fighters loaded vehicles with food and other supplies and drove them onto the makeshift ferry.
“The... dam is not safe yet, we don’t control it fully, there are still some mercenaries there, so we can’t move civilians through,” an SDF commander said, referring to IS fighters.
— Reuters
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