SDF arrests 23 ISIS suspects during start of al-Hol operation

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday said they arrested at least 23 people associated with the Islamic State group while securing the first part of the al-Hol camp in northeast Syria.

The SDF Coordination and Military Operations Center said that they also “discovered a cache filled with laptops containing ISIS files.”

Coalition spokesperson Colonel Wayne Marotto said the SDF finished the first phase of the operation to clear out Islamic State sleeper cells from the camp near Haskah and took biometric data for more than 4,000 residents. The operation in the camp will continue for the next few days.

Around 6,000 members of the Internal Security Forces (also known as Asayish) and SDF launched the operation on Sunday to protect civilians from ISIS cells.

Although the SDF and Coalition announced the territorial defeat of the Islamic State in March 2019, remnants of the terrorist group continue to operate in the liberated territories of northeast Syria.

In January, United Nations officials expressed concern over the deteriorating security conditions inside al-Hol, which hosts over 60,000 residents. The SDF last week announced that ISIS members killed 15 camp residents in March alone, including three women.

Ali Hesen, spokesperson for the International Security Forces in the camp, said that since January 1 at least 47 people have been murdered in al-Hol. He affirmed that the Asayish and SDF launched this “humanitarian as well as a security campaign in the camp to bring to an end all these ISIS activities.”

Acting Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS John Godfrey told reporters on Monday that “the United States is aware of the recent killings and other security threats within the camp.”

“They reflect a persistent threat from ISIS and its criminal affiliates to innocent civilians in al-Hol, which places an increased burden on our local partners to maintain security within the camp.”

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi on Monday again called on foreign countries to take back their citizens from Syria and provide more humanitarian support to the sprawling al-Hol camp in northeast Syria after the Asayish and SDF launched the operation.

The US envoy shared these concerns.

“This is an international problem that requires an international solution.  There are more than 60,000 individuals in al-Hol, from dozens of nationalities, the vast majority of whom are children,” Godfrey said. 

“We urge the international community to consider how they might support both humanitarian agencies who are providing to those populations now, as well as consider the repatriation of their own citizens in order to help relieve the burden on our local partners.”

The majority of al-Hol’s residents are Iraqis and Syrians, but the camp also includes a large number of foreign families thought to be tied to the Islamic State.

Local authorities decided in early October to expedite the departure of displaced Syrian families from al-Hol as part of a new program, but the Iraqi government has so far refused to repatriate most Iraqis living in the camp.

Godfrey said that they will work with Iraqi government to move back the 30,000 Iraqis in al-Hol “as expeditiously and responsibly as we can.”

Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly