Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria have transferred nearly 700 Iraqis linked to the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) to their country, a Syrian NGO said on Friday August 12.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), these are 620 Iraqis, relatives of IS fighters held in the Al-Hol camp, and 50 leaders and fighters from held in a prison of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-dominated alliance of fighters.
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This operation carried out in coordination with the Iraqi authorities is the fourth of its kind since the beginning of the year.
The Al-Hol camp, under the control of Kurdish forces, is located in the province of Hassaké, less than 10 km from the Iraqi border.
About “
620 people, relatives of IS members, left the Al-Hol camp
” in accordance with a coordinated operation between the camp management and the Iraqi government, the OSDH said.
These members of 150 Iraqi families, "
women, children and men, some of whom are sick
", left the camp on Thursday, an official of the Kurdish autonomous administration in the northern regions told AFP. eastern Syria, a country fragmented by the war that started in 2011.
On Wednesday, the official Iraqi news agency INA, quoting the spokesman of the Ministry of Displaced Persons, said that "
500 families from the Al-Hol camp should be repatriated this year
".
In recent months, hundreds of Iraqis linked to IS have left the overcrowded Al-Hol camp, which houses some 56,000 people according to the UN.
In total, “
3,500 Iraqi detainees
are in Kurdish prisons in northeast Syria, a senior Iraqi military official said in June.
On the front line in the fight against IS, the SDF, supported by an international coalition led by the United States, defeated the jihadist group in Syria in 2019 by driving it out of its last stronghold in eastern Syria.
At the end of 2017, Iraq proclaimed its victory against IS, which had been driven out of all of its strongholds in the country.
