Kurdish forces in northeast Syria have arrested dozens of people linked to the ISIL terrorist group in the Al-Hol refugee camp, a Kurdish official said on Friday.
The camp, administered by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is located less than 10 kilometers from the Iraqi border. Dilapidated and overcrowded, it is home, according to the UN, to about 56,000 people, including relatives of terrorists, displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees. About 10,000 of the camp’s residents are foreigners.
The operation launched on Thursday by Kurdish forces, “is aimed at arresting ISIL members in the camp who are behind several terrorist attacks,” Siyemend Ali of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main armed militia of the Kurdish forces, told AFP. A total of 27 people were arrested, Ali said from Al-Hol.
“Our forces have started dismantling the empty tents used by ISIL in the attacks and started recording the names of camp residents and taking their fingerprints,” he said.
On Friday, Kurdish security forces were massively deployed in the camp, AFP correspondents said. In a statement, the SDF called Al-Hol a “nursery” for jihmilitants, arguing that the camp had become fertile ground for new ISIL recruits.
Source: Agencies
