Security forces thwart ISIS escape attempt in Syria’s Hawl Camp
HAWL, Syria (North Press) – On Friday, Internal Security Forces [Asayish] thwarted an escape attempt in which a group of women from ISIS families tried to flee with their children from Hawl Camp, east of Syria’s Hasakah.
The camp, which has witnessed similar attempts over the past few months, contains thousands of families, including some 10,000 people who live in a section designated for the families of foreign ISIS members.
Four of the women arrested were from the Russian Federation, while the fifth was from Tajikistan.
The escape attempt was in a separate section of the camp known as the Section of Foreigners or “Muhajirat Women” through trenches dug earlier to curb smuggling operations.
Dilber Ahmed Mohammed, one of the women who tried to flee, told North Press that she did not know the smugglers who were waiting for them outside the camp.
She added that one of the “sisters” told her the date of leaving the camp, and that she agreed immediately “because of her strong desire to return to Tajikistan.”
Dilber entered Syria with her husband and three children “years ago, through Turkey, to Syria,” but her husband was killed later in a battle in the Iraqi city of Qaim.
The story of Khida Khawaji, a 33-year-old mother of three from Chechnya, did not differ from the others.
Khawaji said, “One of the sisters told me that there is an exit from the camp through the embankment and there is a smuggler who will get us to Turkey.”
Khawaji arrived in Syria with her husband via Turkey, then moved between Manbij and Raqqa, and then Hajin, until she reached the town of Baghouz before ending up in Hawl Camp.
An administrator from the Internal Security Forces [Asayish] in the camp, who only identified himself as “Agid,” said that ISIS sleeper cells “are still active in the camp.”
He added, “There are almost daily killings carried out by the sleeper cells, in addition to many attempts to escape.”
One of the smuggling methods that have become known is to “hide inside water tankers.”
During the past period, many such attempts have been thwarted, according to the security services.
However, Agid said that the security forces were unable to thwart some escape attempts through the mounds or trenches that were built on the outskirts of the camp.
In July, North Press obtained documents and a video clip of a water tanker driver working with the United Nations organization UNICEF trying to smuggle a number of families of ISIS members from Hawl Camp.
The video documents the moment of the arrest of four women of foreign nationalities, who were hidden in a box under the water tank.