Killings continue inside the al-Hol camp

Amid reports of a military incursion by Turkish armed forces into northern Syria, cases of violence committed inside the notorious al-Hol camp in northeast Syria are on the rise.

Two bodies were found by security forces in the camp on Friday. Fatima Umar Mikhlif, a Syrian woman from Raqqa, and an unknown woman were found dead in the third sector of the infamous camp, according to Hawar News Agency (ANHA).
 
On Tuesday, the camp's administration warned against an Islamic State (ISIS) resurgence.

During Turkey's Operation Peace Spring in Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad in 2019, and due to the deployment of troops from the camp to the fronts, hundreds of ISIS families and members were reported smuggled out of the camp. Now, this scenario is feared to be re-enacted anew.

Last week, a woman originating from Deir ez-Zor was found dead, dumped in a sewage canal in the camp’s fifth sector.

The last two murders on Friday raised the number of killings committed in the camp so far this year to 20, in addition to 13 injuries since January 2022. In May alone, there were six murders committed inside the camp; mostly women.

Interrupting the monotony of the arid and desolate landscape between Syria and Iraq, the tent city is surrounded by a sand berm and trenches.

The largest camp in northeast Syria, some 45 kilometers to the east of Hasaka, was initially set up by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) during the 1991 Gulf War to accommodate approximately 15,000 Iraqi people.

In 2016, large numbers of Iraqis who fled ISIS arrived in the camp. In 2018, the camp hosted roughly 10,000 Iraqis. Between 2016 and 2018, an influx of Syrian internally displaced persons (IDPs) arrived in the camp. After the collapse of the last ISIS bastion in Baghouz, the camp swelled.

According to the latest figures, the camp houses around 56,000 people: the vast majority of them children. Around 50% of the camp’s population are under the age of 12. Iraqis make up the majority with 29,152 men, women and children. Second to Iraqis are Syrian IDPs, with 18,863 men, women and children. Foreign ISIS wives and children come third with 8,109 persons descending from 54 countries. They live in the hellish ninth sector, also known as the Annex.

Within the Annex is an even smaller and unexplored sub-section called Mount Baghouz, where the most extreme elements are located, having self-segregated themselves in an attempt to continue ISIS rule. Much of the Baghouz bastion was taken by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and brought to eastern Hasaka.

When people began to arrive at the camp from Baghouz late in March 2019, the tenor at the camp changed dramatically. Before then, women did not cover their faces. Now, you cannot see a girl older than eight without a veil. This reinforces the notion that the foreigners are more extreme than Syrians and Iraqis. Indeed, they are holding the reins of power in the camp. 

On Wednesday, security CCTV cameras monitored a collective break-away attempt of ISIS foreign wives with their children, it was reported, although this was aborted by Internal security forces (Asayish).

Initially, killings inside the camp were of the 'hit and run’ kind, although this seems to have changed. Recent cases of abduction, beheadings, stoning to death and dumping bodies into sewage canals, indicate that the 'death squads' are better organized and moving more freely.

Last week, a guard at a healthcare clinic was abducted by an unknown group. The fate of the guard remains unknown, and his case rang the bell of danger in the camp.

In January, a paramedic affiliated to the Kurdish Red Crescent was killed while on assignment in the camp.

With the first killing taking place in April 2019 - a month after the capture of Baghouz - the figure stands now at 150 deaths and some 103 injuries. 

In 2021, two people were killed per week (mostly Iraqis) making the al-Hol one of the most dangerous places in the world. The majority of these murders (98%) took place in the main camp, home to Syrians and Iraqis.

Those believed to be responsible for the killings in the camp are women, primarily foreigners, from the Hisbah System, a self-appointed group that enforces Sharia law according to their extremist and strict interpretation of Islam. 

Based on the notion of 'enjoining good and forbidding evil' the Hisbah members target those 'collaborators' with the camp's administration. These are blamed for dealing with 'infidels' who they believe brought down the so-called caliphate. 

The second group of targets are 'renegades' who no longer believe in ISIS. These are either a group that have paid dearly and consequently left despondent and regretted having joined the group, or are/were not ISIS affiliates or sympathizers. However, many were in Baghouz and thus found themselves in the deadly al-Hol.

A third category of targets are people working with NGOs. This last one, as a security measure, regularly change their mobile phones due to the text 'death' messages they receive from ISIS death squads. Security guards deployed to the camp remain a constant target.

However, located in a vulnerable area, keeping the camp in check remains difficult. After rumors of a new incursion by Turkey, more forces are said to have been deployed to the camps and security tightened. Little, however, has improved on the ground.

Repeatedly - though fruitlessly - the Kurdish authorities of Rojava request that members and families of ISIS held in the region be either prosecuted locally or repatriated to their countries of origin. The Kurds say they should not serve as international prisoners for fighters and wives of the Islamic state, but it is an international dilemma. 

However, the notion that the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) is a non-state entity raises questions on the legality of such a request. The likelihood of the second request is much weaker than the first. Durable and sustainable solutions are urgently needed to remedy the crisis in the camp. 

Owing to the hard living conditions, and the exorbitant costs that shoulder the Kurdish authorities, the SDF and Syrian Arab clans in Ain Issa in early May 2019 sought a deal to guarantee the return of Syrians to their villages and towns in Hasaka, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor.

As a result of the Ain Issa forum, the first batch of Syrian IDPs was conducted in June 2019. 

In a multipartite agreement signed on 10 October 2020, Kurdish authorities said they were intending to send all 'willing' Syrians home and to clear the camp. The SDF accelerated the release of Syrians in 2020 and 2021. However, the process slowed in 2022.

Compared to 10,092 Syrians in the course of three years, just 217 have left the camp since January 2022 from Deir ez-Zor.

As the current situation of the camp remains unbridled, and with the pervasive insecurity, the de facto rule of ISIS continues. A lasting solution remains to be seen. 

Lazghine Ya'qoube is a translator and researcher focusing on the modern history of Mesopotamia, with a special focus on Yazidi and Assyrian affairs in Turkey, Syria and Iraq.