“ISIS is not over yet” / US partners, fear of IS remnants in Syria

Officials with US-backed forces in northeastern Syria told VOA that the recent escalation of violence across the region, including attacks on civil servants and execution-style killings in the al-Hol refugee camp , are linked to a wave of operations from areas formally under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as from neighboring Iraq.

The assessment by US partners on the ground is in line with Washington’s own findings in recent months, which warn that IS fighters and operatives enjoy freedom of movement in much of Syria as they find ways to adapt. environment in the interest of the terrorist group.

“ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is not over yet,” Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told VOA.

The SDF has responded with a campaign, utilizing US-led coalition air support and reconnaissance data to locate and eliminate IS fighters.

Commander Abdi told VOA that the operations had led to a number of arrests.

An IS cell blamed for the abduction and beheading of two women working for the SDF-linked North and East Syrian Autonomous Administration has almost disappeared, he said. SDF personnel killed four of the suspected assailants and arrested the fifth, although another managed to escape.

However, Abdi warned that even such SDF successes have not done much to deter IS.

“He has increased the attacks,” he said. “The terrorist organization is trying to resurrect itself.”

Earlier attempts to eradicate IS in some of the hottest areas, such as the Badiyah Desert along the Syria-Iraq border, also apparently managed to do little more than keep IS fighters trapped behind earlier claims to success.

Abdi encourages US and coalition forces to help the SDF maintain a steady pace of operations against IS and do more to support local governments.

“If they provide support to the civilian administration in our region, we can pursue a more fruitful campaign against ISIS,” he said.

But there is doubt as to whether such support will be sufficient, given IS ‘ability to utilize a broad base of support in displaced persons’ camps, such as al-Hol.

According to the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political wing of the SDF, al-Hol camp has been the scene of more than 23 killings since January, most of them linked to IS.

“Most of those killed are Iraqis because they are working with security forces inside the camp,” Sinam Mohamad, SDC’s representative in the United States, told VOA.

And just like with IS cells operating outside the al-Hol camp, a series of arrests inside the camp have done little to disrupt IS activity.

“This is a very dangerous camp,” he said. “There are very dangerous people living there,” said Mohamad. “They help these ‘sleeping’ cells and support them.”

Sinam Mohamad and other officials say parts of the camp are essentially run by the wives and relatives of IS fighters, who have formed Hisbah councils, which carry out IS religious orders.

These officials claim that intelligence data collected from those arrested as part of the al-Hol purge show that IS supporters inside the camp are receiving instructions from his cells that have infiltrated the area.

U.S. officials warn that money and weapons have also been brought into the camp, which is now seen by IS supporters not only as a remnant of the terrorist group’s physical caliphate, but as a new operations center.

Other US officials are raising concerns that al-Hol and camps like him are becoming part of the so-called “doomsday scenario”, serving as active incubators for the next generation of IS.

“It’s a big problem,” John Godfrey, acting secretary of state for counterterrorism, told a virtual conference Wednesday. “We have seen incidents of radicalization of children aged 10 and 11.”

SDC’s Sinam Mohamad told VOA that the situation for children in al-Hol is, at best, precarious.

“We are afraid for these children who are with their mothers.” she said. “They are feeding them with this extremist ideology and we do not know what will happen.”

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