Syria’s Hawl camp witnesses spike in ISIS activity following Turkish threats
HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – Despite tightening security measures, the Islamic State (ISIS) sleeper cells have recently been very active in Hawl camp in Hasakah Governorate, northeast Syria, a security source said on Thursday.
As Turkey began to threaten to launch a military operation on Syria’s north, crimes rate and assassination attempts increased in the camp, where six murders and four failed assassination attempts were recorded since mid-May, according the source told North Press.
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.
Since the beginning of the year, the camp’s management has recorded 23 murders of nine Syrians, including a paramedic works at Kurdish Red Crescent medical point, and 14 Iraqi refugees, who make up more than half of the camp’s population. In addition, 14 failed assassination attempts were recorded.
There are about 8,000 Iraqi families in the Hawl Camp, comprising more than 30,000 individuals out of more than 56,000 in the camp, according to the latest official statistics obtained from the camp management.
The camp witnesses consecutive crimes with different ways including gunfire.
The camp’s management fears that the ISIS sleeper cells may reorganize themselves in the light of the Turkish threats, according to a statement by North Press citing the camp’s management as saying.
Many days ago, the Internal Security Forces of North and East Syria (Asayish) and medical staff in the camp found a corps of a woman thrown in sewage in the fifth sector.
The Democratic Syrian Forces (SDF) revealed that they, in corporation with the US-led Global Coalition, arrested a cell consists of three members near the Hawl camp.
A security source in the camp had earlier said that the ISIS sleeper cells work on training and recruiting the camp’s children in order to use them in carrying out killings, slaughters and kidnappings.
The camp houses more than 35,000 children under the age of 17. In addition, the number of children of ISIS foreign detainees and dead members is about 5.797 under the age of 18, according to the camp’s management.
On June 6, a high-level UN delegation, accompanied by the Chief of Iraq’s National Security Service, made a trip to Hawl Camp and called all the countries to repatriate their nationals who reside in the camp, in order to eliminate the risks that could pose a big threat on the region and the world.