SDF kills senior ISIS official in al-Hol camp

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday said they killed a senior ISIS official in Syria’s al-Hol camp in a joint operation with the US-led coalition.

The SDF said the senior ISIS official called Abu Obeida al-Iraqi aka Abu Muawiyah was an Iraqi national who was responsible for planning ‘terrorist activities’ in the al-Hol camp, and was killed after refusing the surrender.

The Asayish in a separate statement said two ISIS members were killed.

The ISIS official was reportedly involved in planning attacks “targeting our security and military points, and threatening the civilian associations and the NGOs/INGOs operating in the al-Hol camp.”

The SDF said Abu Obeida was identified as the mastermind behind activities in the camp following “a year and a half of diligent monitoring and thorough investigation within the al-Hol camp.”

Read More: 173 Iraqi families repatriated from Syria's al-Hol camp

The al-Hol camp houses thousands of Iraqi, Syrian, and foreign nationals. 

“Al-Hol camp is a hotspot for ISIS activity; a threat made even more serious by the thousands of foreign nationals still residing in the camp, due to the refusal of Western governments to repatriate their nationals,”  Samantha Teal, a researcher at the Syria-based Rojava Information Centre (RIC), told Kurdistan 24.

“The SDF have located numerous ISIS members within the camp within several large-scale security operations: Abu Obaida al-Iraqi is just the latest. The problem is that the SDF cannot fully focus on combating ISIS because it is fighting a multi-front war in NES, with Turkish airstrikes in the north and Iranian-backed militias attacking in Deir ez-Zor.”