A/HRC/33/55 anti-Government armed groups lost strategic territory to ISIL on the Azaz and Maree axis along the Turkish border. 15. Jabhat al-Nusra continues to play a major combat role in Idlib and Aleppo. The group maintained operational links with some anti-Government armed groups in various offensives, particularly against government forces and ISIL. However, Jabhat al-Nusra’s capacity has been diminished by extensive air strikes by pro-Government forces and increased infighting, particularly in Idlib, Rif Damascus and Dara’a. Political and governance differences are said to be widening with other armed groups in some of the localities, including Idlib and Aleppo. Air strikes by pro-Government forces targeting Jabhat al-Nusra have also weakened other armed groups. 16. Benefiting from extensive aerial operations and support by the international coalition against ISIL, the Syrian Democratic Forces — composed of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and other Arab and Assyrian armed groups — have made significant territorial strides in southern areas Hasakah governorate and eastern areas of Aleppo governorate. The Syrian Democratic Forces have, however, made smaller advances towards the de facto ISIL capital of Raqqah city than they had earlier envisaged. 17. Facing pressure on multiple fronts and by a number of belligerents, ISIL continued to lose territory in the first half of 2016. In the south of Hasakah governorate, the Syrian Democratic Forces wrested control of the large Shaddadi region, putting further strain on the terrorist group’s supply routes to Iraq. In north-east Aleppo, and with extensive aerial operations and support from the international coalition against ISIL, the Syrian Democratic Forces managed to fully encircle the strategic ISIL-held town of Minbij. With ISIL not allowing civilians to leave, thousands remain trapped inside the town. 18. While making moderate gains around Dayr az-Zawr city and against various armed groups in northern Aleppo, ISIL has lost significant territory to government forces in Palmyra, Homs. With those losses, the control exerted by ISIL over northern border areas and access points with Turkey appears to have been almost completely reversed. Nevertheless, the group maintains the capacity to attack on a number of fronts. It has increasingly employed explosive devices and suicide bombers in the Governmentcontrolled areas of Latakia, Damascus and Homs. 19. As violence resurges inside the Syrian Arab Republic, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons climbs ever higher. About 6.6 million Syrians, many of them women and children, have been displaced within the country’s borders. Most live in official or makeshift camps along the borders. Some camps have been shelled or aerially bombarded by belligerents. Makeshift camps offer little support to the internally displaced, with health services and education for children largely absent. That civilians continue to move into these camps underlines the grave dangers they face in the areas from which they have fled. 20. Almost 5 million Syrians have crossed the border to become refugees. The majority — more than 4 million — now live in neighbouring countries. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, only 10 per cent of Syrians seeking safe haven from conflict have sought refuge in Europe. Many high-income countries outside of Europe have not provided any resettlement places to Syrian refugees. 5