Syria begins evacuation of ISIS-linked Al-Hol camp
Shafaq News- Hasakah/ Aleppo
Syrian authorities on Tuesday began evacuating the Al-Hol camp in northeast Syria, which houses families linked to ISIS, senior officials said.
Fadi Al-Qassem, the government-appointed official overseeing the camp, told AFP that the evacuation is underway and the site “will be fully evacuated within a week." Residents are being transferred to a camp in Akhtarin in northern Aleppo province, another source told the agency.
Recent estimates place Al-Hol’s population at about 17,000 people, including roughly 3,000 Iraqi nationals, most of them women and children, though Syrian media reported that the figure has declined significantly in recent weeks.
On January 20, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which had administered the camp –now a closed military area– withdrew, citing “international indifference” to the ISIS threat, while Syria’s Interior Ministry accused the group of leaving without coordinating with Damascus or the anti-ISIS Global Coalition, warning the step could “undermine counterterrorism efforts.”
Read more: Syria’s calm: An end to threat or a start of a complex security phase for Iraq?
