KURDISH FORCES IN SYRIA TRANSFER 700 DAESH MEMBERS AND RELATIVES TO IRAQ

Sat 13 August 2022:

The Kurdish autonomous administration on Friday handed over around 700 people to the Iraqi government, most of whom are relatives of members of terrorist organisation Daesh and detained inside a camp in north-eastern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

SOHR stated that more than 620 relatives of the organisation’s members left Al-Hol camp by joint coordination between the camp administration and the Iraqi government.

This is the fourth batch that has left the camp, located in the province of Hasaka, since the beginning of the year.

AFP news agency quoted an official in the autonomous administration confirming that the people who left the camp on Thursday constitute 150 families.

According to SOHR, the Iraqi government also handed over about 50 other leaders and members of the organisation detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces, which consists of Kurdish and Arab factions. They were also transferred to Iraq.

The Iraqi authorities announced in early June that they had received 50 members of the organisation from the Kurdish forces. A senior military source shared that there were 3,500 Iraqi detainees in the Syrian Democratic Forces’ prisons at the time.

Over the past months, hundreds of Iraqis from families suspected of being linked to Daesh have left Al-Hol camp. The Iraqi authorities often transfer them to Al-Jada camp in the south of Mosul before returning to their origin areas.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi News Agency quoted spokesperson for the Ministry of Migration and Displacement, Ali Abbas Jahangir, stating that 500 families were scheduled to be transferred from Al-Hol camp this year in batches.

The government has already received more than 150 families, and the remaining families will be transferred by the end of the year.

Since 2014, Daesh has controlled large areas in Iraq and neighbouring Syria before being defeated in 2017 and 2019.

Al-Hol camp, which houses about 56,000 people, experiences security incidents from time to time, including escape operations, attacks against guards or humanitarian workers and the killing of its residents.

Since the beginning of the year, SOHR has recorded the killing of 30 people at the hands of Daesh cells inside the camp. The United Nations and international organisations warn about the “catastrophic” situation in the camp.

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