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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A senior member of Islamic State (ISIS) was detained Wednesday by Kurdish forces and the global coalition against ISIS in northeast Syria , according to Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Shawaysh al-Airash was detained in Dashisha on the Iraqi-Syrian border, and is said to have smuggled ISIS-affiliated detainees out of the infamous al-Hol camp.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) & the International Coalition against ISIS “detained a senior ISIS smuggler in Dashisha,” read a tweet from the SDF’s Coordination and Military Operations Center.
“He smuggled Daesh fighters out of al-Hol Camp, to help [s]pread terror & violence across the region,” it added, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Al-Airash is said to be “part of a larger smuggler network” sending fighters to Iraq.
Located in the northeast province of Hasaka, the notorious al-Hol camp is home to about 70,000 people, including more than 11,000 family members of suspected ISIS militants from overseas.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi soil in summer 2014 but was declared defeated in Iraq in December 2017 and in Syria in March of this year.
Many suspected affiliates of the group, including wives of ISIS fighters, have been settled in the camp. There have been confirmed reports of escapes, riots and attacks by camp residents.
The SDF has been the main anti-ISIS force on the ground, allied with the global coalition to fight ISIS.
The Turkish invasion of northern Syria in October loosened security as SDF forces were sent to the frontline, leading to the escape of hundreds of detainees from Ain Issa camp.
However, the SDF says that they have recaptured most of them.
The US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria concerned some Western countries as they feared that, accompanied with the Turkish incursion, the withdrawal could give ISIS a chance to regroup.
US troops only remained in areas rich with oil in order to “protect” oil wells.
However, the SDF said on Monday that they and the Coalition “re-deployed” forces to Hasaka, Qamishli and Derik (al-Malikiya) and Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria.
They both “continue their joint work to target ISIS sleeper cells and ensure security, stability, protection of civilians from terrorist attacks and the protection of all gas and oil fields in the mentioned areas.”
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