A UN monitoring and sanctions team report on jihadist gangs underscores the security threat posed by Al-Hol camp as the main recruitment center for minors for the Islamic State (Isis, Daesh). It is a key “financial node” for laundering funds with which to feed its insurgency; and “smuggling of detainees to replenish their ranks.”
Throughout the operations carried out by the Kurdish SDF and the United States in Syria against Daesh, they have detected individuals who were engaged in the “global recruitment of the group and planning attacks in Al-Hol and other prisons in the northeast of Syria that house Isis fighters and young affiliates of the same”
“US helicopter raids in north-eastern Syria killed Hamza Al Hiomzi, head of Isis in eastern Syria; Ibrahim al-Qahtani, of the “leakage apparatus”. In addition, the SDF carried out a raid in Al Hol in which 200 suspected members of the Islamic State were arrested; a large stockpile of weapons and communication devices was confiscated and many tunnels used to smuggle weapons and inhabitants out of the camp were discovered.
Now, there is a relative calm. It is recalled that Spain and other countries have proceeded to repatriate some of their citizens, “relieving the security pressure on the SDF in the surveillance and management of these facilities.”
But the sprawling camp remains a pressing security issue with reports of children being exposed to emotional and sexual abuse under the strong influence of Isis hardline women and attempts by gang-affiliated networks to exfiltrate women and young children, particularly orphans, outside of Al-Hol, it adds.
He monitoring of financial networks linked to Daesh in the last four months (November 2022-February 2023) suggests that these entities have prioritized obtaining smuggling capital for women and children (…). Some prominent pro-Daesh Russian crowdfunding networks on Telegram, such as “Al Muwahid and Al Mumtahanah” they claim to have removed women and orphans suffering from “life-threatening diseases” from Al Hol.
This narrative is being used as a weapon to obtain financial assistance. To do so, they stress that camp authorities deliberately deprive detainees suffering from life-threatening diseases of proper medical care and show no “mercy” to sick women.
“This adds a new impetus to your crowdfunding efforts. In one of the notes inserted to raise funds, published in November 2022 by an administrator of one of the channels, it was said: “with the permission of Allah, we are opening an urgent collection for the rescue of a sister, her daughter with a injured eye and her two children from captivity. The sister has cancer and the doctor’s comments and ultrasound reports are attached below. Urgent treatment is needed, which is out of the question in the conditions of the filthy camp. Time passes and the disease progresses every day, which greatly affects the condition of the sister, who needs to take care of the children, as well as maintain life in the difficult conditions of the camp. By the grace of Allah, there is now an option for the sister to be released from captivity for further treatment. The market is open and the cost is known to be $22,000.” At the end of February, the channel’s administrator claimed to have raised around $12,000 for this campaign.
Parallel to this, another donation request was to illegally remove a 9- or 10-year-old boy suffering from subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a slowly progressive brain disorder, for urgent medical attention and treatment options. in Turkey. The costs of her release, along with the required medical treatment, came to $24,000 so the donations kept pouring in.”
Payments could be made through of PayPal and the cryptocurrency known as Tether by sharing the link to the crypto wallet.”
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