ISIS bride to North Press: Turkey smuggled ISIS wife out of Syria’s Hawl Camp
Rima Rifaai
HAWL, Syria (North Press) – The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria accuses Turkey of smuggling ISIS women and fighters’ wives out of northeastern Syria' notorious Hawl Camp, to them evidence that Turkey continues to seek to revitalizie ISIS in the region.
Jazima Muhammad, the wife of an ISIS fighter of Maldivian nationality who resides in Hawl Camp, told North Press that Natalia Barkal, whom Turkey smuggled out of the camp, joined her ISIS husband and was among ISIS women who left Baghouz camp in 2019.
The official Turkish Anadolu News Agency claimed last Friday that Turkish intelligence "rescued" a Moldovan woman and her four children from Hawl Camp in northern Syria, and accused the SDF of detaining them unjustly, as she and her husband had travelled to Syria in 2013 allegedly to engage in trade. However, Anadolu did not clarify what type of business thr couple carried out in war-torn Syria.
A security source from the camp said Natalia Barkal was one of their most wanted fugitives. "We discovered her escape after the implementation of the security campaign we carried out in the camp in mid-June."
Muhammad said in an exclusive interview with North Press that Natalia Barkal is the wife of an ISIS fighter whom she met in Baghouz, the last ISIS stronghold in Syria in 2019, and they were together in Hawl Camp later.
Jazima entered Syria with her husband in 2015 via Turkey. He was killed in al-Mayadeen, southeast of Deir ez-Zor, in 2018.
She admitted that she tried to flee ISIS held-areas and go to Turkey in late 2018, but the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) thwarted her attempt, and she surrendered to the SDF in March 2019.
A security source previously told North Press that Jazima is the wife of an ISIS operative and surrendered to the SDF during the battle of Baghouz in March 2019.
Hawl, which is located in eastern Hasakah, is home to around 11,000 ISIS women and children from about 54 countries, who are being held in a separate part of Hawl Camp dedicated for foreign ISIS wives, according to the camp administration.
(Edited by Lucas Chapman)