Zayzafun (Arabic: الزيزفون, romanized: Zayzafūn), also known as Ikadah (Arabic: ايكدة, romanized: Īkidah; Turkish: İğde[2]), is a village in the northern Aleppo countryside, Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. Located on the Queiq Plain, between Azaz and Al-Rai, the village is some 45 kilometres (28 mi) north of the city of Aleppo, and just 1 km (0.62 mi) south of the border with the Turkish Province of Kilis.
Administratively the village belongs to Nahiya SawraninAzaz District. Nearby localities include Kafr Ghan 2 km (1.2 mi) to the south and Hawar Kilis 3 km (1.9 mi) to the east. In the 2004 census, Zayzafun had a population of 820.[1]
In the Syrian civil war, the Ikadah IDP Camp, located 1 km (0.62 mi) north of the village at the border to Turkey, offered shelter to internally displaced persons (IDPs), mostly from the subdistricts of Azaz, Nubl, Tell Rifaat and Mare'.[3] In April 2016, the Ikadah camp was filled with 7,763 IDPs, when an imminent ISIL counter-offensive prompted a complete evacuation of the Ikadah camp and neighboring camps near Shamarin and Harjala.[4] On April 14, rebels retreated from Zayzafun and the neighboring villages down to Kafr Ghan and Baraghida, leaving the remaining rebel forces around Dudyan surrounded by ISIL.[5][6]
Ikadah is a Turkmen village.[2][7] In late 19th century, traveler Martin Hartmann noted the village as a Turkish village of 10 houses, then located in the Ottoman nahiyah of Azaz-i Turkman.[8]
Syria
