Syrian fishermen lend their boats to aid escape from ISIL

With the most direct route to Tabqa blocked by ISIL, the Syrian Democratic Forces have created a new supply route across Lake Assad using a makeshift ferry which also carries civilians to safety.

Displaced civilians on the bck of a lorry after after being rescued on a makeshift ferry by members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) through a water corridor at Lake Assad, a reservoir created by the Tabqa dam, on April 29, 2017. The ferry also serves as a supply vessel for the SDF as it prepares for the offensive on Raqqa. Delil Souleiman / AFP
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LAKE ASSAD, SYRIA // A waterway corridor has become a key supply line in the advance on Raqqa, ISIL’s stronghold in Syria.

Lake Assad, an enormous reservoir created by the dam at Tabqa is also providing an escape route for displaced civilians.

The territory north of Tabqa is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance. But their advance by land on the strategically-important town of Tabqa, is blocked by the Tabqa Dam, which is still under ISIL control.

So instead, they are running supplies across Lake Assad, an enormous reservoir created by the dam, and using the return crossing to transport civilians from Tabqa to safety.

The main vessel 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 human cargo across the lake multiple times a day. The crossing takes an hour.

The SDF, which include Arab fighters, seized six neighbourhoods from ISIL militants in Tabqa on Sunday, according to the affiliated Hawar news agency.

Capturing the town is a vital step towards the advance on Raqqa, 45 kilometres to the north-west, which the SDF is seeking to encircle before beginning a final assault.

The nearby Tabqa Dam is one of several controlling the flow of the Euphrates River.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the SDF’s control of Tabqa was “practically total.”

An American air lift in March of artillery and special forces advisers destined for deployment behind ISIL lines was a turning point in the Tabqa offensive and underscored the closeness between Washington and the SDF.

On Saturday, several dozen exhausted and wary 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. The fighters also offered bread to the civilians.

On the other side of the lake, the “ferry” is attached by rope to a tractor and hauled ashore where lorries packed with more weary families wait to escape.

“We were besieged in Tabqa. The humanitarian situation was really bad,” said Ismail Mohamed, 39, who made the crossing with his family. “People are hungry and tired. Everyone is psychologically shattered, crushed. hen 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 ISIL fighters. “So we have opened a water corridor to rescue civilians.”

The makeshift craft relies on local fishermen who lend the SDF their boats. In the morning, the boats go out to fish. For the rest of the day, they serve as motors to propel the floating bridge back and forth across Lake Assad.

On the southern shore, the SDF faces fierce resistance from car bombs, weaponized drones and suicide attacks by the extremists.

On the water though, there is little sound except the engines of the boats and the thump of two US-led coalition helicopters overhead, helping secure the corridor.

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“There is not fear like there was before,” said SDF fighter Amed Qamishlo. “Daesh has begun to collapse in Tabqa, and now things are good compared to how they were. Before we used to take a long route to avoid ISIL drones which were armed with bombs and tried to target the ferry, but the drones were not able to hit us, and the coalition aircraft above us protect us.”

* Agence France Presse