Radicalization of children at al-Hol a ‘profound problem’: top US commander

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) has said that the radicalization of thousands of children in camps in northeast Syria (Rojava) is a serious problem keeping him up at night. 

“Two very disparate things keep me up at night. Something that really concerns me, and something I touch about in my remarks, is the future of refugees and displaced persons,” General Kenneth McKenzie told the American Enterprise Institute in a webinar on Tuesday.

Using al-Hol camp as an example, the commander said “these children in particular are being radicalized, and unless we find a way to repatriate them, reintegrate them and de-radicalize them, we're giving ourselves the gift of fighters five to seven years down the road, and that is a profound problem.”

“It will be a military problem in a few years if we don’t fix the non-military aspects of it now,” he said in the interview, in which he also discussed the “proliferation” of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) used by Iran and terror groups including the Islamic State (ISIS).

“It’s very cheap to train someone to use a system like this. You can do it a very relatively low level of training and relatively low expenditure of money but you can have significant results,” he said of UAS. 

Al-Hol is home to more than 30,000 ISIS-linked foreign nationals, including more than 22,000 foreign children.

Kurdish and foreign authorities have constantly called on foreign states to repatriate their children, reissuing an appeal this month as security in the camp deteriorates.

The United Nations in February called on 57 member states to repatriate their nationals from the camps. Earlier this month, Russia repatriated 34 children held at al-Hol.

Relatives of women and children held at al-Hol and the smaller Roj camp have also campaigned for their repatriation, even undergoing hunger strikes.

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A senior Syrian Kurdish official warned on Saturday of ISIS' ability to regroup in camps and prisons in the region, saying children are “trained in the ISIS mentality.”