HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – A security source in Hawl Camp, east of the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah, said Saturday Islamic State Organization (ISIS) sleeper cells have intensified training given to the camp’s children to help in killings and kidnappings carried out in the camp amidst recent Turkish threats to invade areas in north Syria.
With the latest Turkish threats of launching a new incursion in northern Syria, residents and IDPs in northeastern Syria fear that this might lead to losing control of the camp, which presages a catastrophe, especially as the children have been prepared to kill.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that those children ‘cubs of the caliphate’, brought up in the areas held by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, participated in many recent killings carried out by the ISIS sleeper cells in the camp.
Hawl Camp, located 45 kilometers east of Hasakah, contains about 55.900 individuals comprising internally displaced Syrians, Iraqi refugees and families of either dead or detained ISIS members, according to the camp’s management.
The Hawl camp is a house for 36.000 individuals under the age of eighteen, 5.797 of whom are children of dead and detainees of the ISIS foreign members, according to the camp’s management.
Children in the camp are subjected to Sharia courses, ideological training and methods of killing to participate in the operations carried out inside the camp, according to the security source.
Since the beginning of 2022, the camp has witnessed 18 murders, 8 Iraqis and 10 Syrians, including a paramedic who worked for the Kurdish Red Crescent. Most of them were killed with firearms, another security source told North Press previously.
The security services in the camp often find bodies of children or women dumped on the outskirts of the camp or in sanitary, days or weeks after their abduction, according to the security source.
The children often throw stones at the security forces and humanitarian organizations’ staff and their cars, chanting phrases including, “You are infidels, you are apostates” and other phrases that indicate that these children are indoctrinated with extremist thoughts.
On May 8, North Press obtained, from a security source, a video clip showing a child from the ‘Cubs of the Caliphate’ leading a group of wives of ISIS members in a prayer in the camp.
The child, who seemed like he was no more than nine, was a national of a foreign country. He prayed as an imam for a congregational Eid al-Fitr prayer held in the camp.
On June 5, the UN urged all the countries that have citizens in the camp to repatriate their nationals. This came after a high-level UN delegation, accompanied by the Chief of Iraq’s National Security Service, made a trip to Hawl Camp on the same day.
On May 23, Erdogan announced taking steps to complete the so-called remained portions of the “safe zone” plan along Turkey’s southern border saying, “We will soon take new steps regarding the incomplete portions of the project we started on the 30 km deep safe zone we established along our southern border.”
The Turkish “safe zone” is an area of 30-35 km (19-22 miles) deep into Syrian territory that Turkey started establishing in 2019 to house Syrian refugees in an area along its border with Syria, as well as to keep it free from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which it regards as terrorists.
On May 25, Turkey’s National Security Council said that Turkey’s “existing and future military operations along its southern borders were necessary for the country’s security.” In the meeting, Erdogan delivered a speech to the MPs of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and said, “Turkish military would continue to rid its neighbour of terrorists” refers to the SDF.
On June 1, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his threats of launching a military operation on northern Syria, and specified his targets in the two Syrian cities of Manbij and Tel Rifaat, which include many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).