SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Thursday detained 27 Islamic State-linked suspects in Syria’s al-Hol camp amid a campaign launched to eradicate extremism, said a military man.
Local media reported that the Kurdish-led SDF announced the start of an operation to clear the Kurdish run-camp of al-Hol, located in northeastern of Syria’s Hasakeh, and at least 27 IS-linked suspects were detained as part of a crackdown on extremists.
“The campaign aims to detain IS terrorist plotters and those who commit terrorist actions,” said military man of People’s Protection Units (YPG) Siyamand Ali.
Al-Hol camp holds nationals from some 60 countries who fled from IS’s last enclaves and is the largest. Kurdish security forces were heavily deployed in the camp since Friday, according to AFP.
“So far 27 suspects were detained and four secret tunnels inside the camp have been discovered,” Ali said.
“Our forces began to dismantle empty tents used by IS during attacks and started registering the names of residents… and collecting their fingerprints,” Ali added.
Up to this point, the Al-Hol camp alone houses nearly 65,000 people, including about 28,000 Syrians, 30,000 Iraqis, and some 10,000 other foreigners of many nationalities most of whom are women and children, according to U.N. estimates.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which visits the camps, has described them as a “tragedy in plain sight”.
