ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi government on Tuesday repatriated nearly 200 families affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) from al-Hol camp in northeast Syria’s (Rojava) Hasaka province, a war monitor reported.
“176 Iraqi families, with an estimated number of 634 individuals from ISIS families left al-Hol camp towards Iraq,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.
Their repatriation is part of an agreement between the Iraqi government and the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), the monitor added, with the end goal being the removal of all Iraqi families from the camp.
Iraqis and Syrians make up the majority of the 40,000 ISIS-linked people who have been held at al-Hol camp in northeast Syria’s Hasaka province since the defeat of the terror group in 2019. The camp has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism.
Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji in March said that around 20,000 Iraqis below the age of 18 are still at al-Hol.