Snowfall in the Midwest is taking its toll on air travel in Chicago as one plane trying to land at O'Hare International Airport slid off the runway.
The city's aviation department says more than 440 flights in and out of the airport have been canceled.
None of the 38 passengers and three crew members aboard an Envoy Air flight from Greensboro, N.C., were hurt when the plane slid off the runway at about 7:45 a.m. Monday.
Commuters walk in the snow as a winter weather advisory is issued for the Chicago area on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, in Chicago. (Rich HeinChicago Sun-Times via AP)
Besides the flights canceled at O'Hare, snow and ice have forced airlines to cancel more than 90 flights at Chicago's Midway International Airport.
The National Weather Service says is expecting as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of snow in Illinois and up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) in northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan.
Commuters walk in the snow as a winter weather advisory is issued for the Chicago area on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, in Chicago. (Rich HeinChicago Sun-Times via AP)
A pedestrian walks in the snow as a winter weather advisory is issued for the Chicago area on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, in Chicago. (Rich HeinChicago Sun-Times via AP)
A woman clears off a Divvy bike as a winter weather advisory is issued for the Chicago area on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, in Chicago. (Rich HeinChicago Sun-Times via AP)
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
