![]() ![]() “With the permission of Allah, we are opening an urgent collection for the ransom of a sister, her daughter with injured eye and her 2 children from captivity. In one of the fundraisers posted in November 2022 by an administrator of one of the channels, this narrative gained traction. This adds a new impetus to their crowdfunding efforts. But currently the pro IS actors have repeatedly peddled a new narrative, that camp authorities deliberately deprive the detainees suffering from deadly diseases of adequate medical care and show “no mercy” toward the ailing women. Some prominent pro-IS Russian crowdfunding networks on Telegram that after a period of hiatus resurfaced in late November 2022 “ Al Muwahid and Al Mumtahanah claim of smuggling out women and orphans suffering from “life threatening diseases.” Initially the narrative – that speedy reparations of children to their disbelieving home countries dampen the chances of their escape from the camps – was weaponized for garnering financial assistance. ICSVE’ monitoring of the IS-linked financial networks of the past 4 months (November 2022-February 2023) suggest that these entities have prioritized raising smuggling capital for critically ill pro IS women detainees and children. But the sprawling camp still serves to be a pressing security concern with the reports of children being exposed to emotional and sexual abuse under the heavy influence of the hardline IS women and also because of the IS-affiliated networks’ attempts at exfiltrating women and young children, particularly orphans out of Al-Hol. Iraq, Spain, and many other countries have also repatriated some of their citizens from Syrian detention camps alleviating the security pressure on the SDF in guarding and administering these facilities. Now, since the beginning of January 2023, there has been a brief period of relative calm in Al-Hol with no major violent incidents or attacks of IS sympathizers or sleeper cells reported along with only a few unsuccessful escape attempts by detainees. Back in August 2022, witnessing a surge in violence and murders, the SDF also conducted a sweeping three-week-long raid in the Al-Hol detaining around 200 IS suspects, also confiscating a large weapon arsenal and communication devices along with discovering many tunnels used for smuggling weapons and inhabitants outside of the camp. ![]() helicopter raids in northeast Syria have killed Hamza Al Homzi, the leader overseeing the group’s network in eastern Syria, Ibrahim al-Qahtani, a senior IS plotter involved in planning prison breaks and another IS leader who headed an assassination cell. In February alone, the group witnessed the loss of many of its senior leaders in Syria. The joint counterterrorism operations have led to the capture and killing of many of the key IS Syria province officials who were responsible for the group’s global recruiting efforts and for planning attacks on Al- Hol and other prisons across northeastern Syria holding IS fighters and ISIS-affiliated youth. Special Operations forces with the Kurdish-led SDF forces have launched an aggressive crackdown on IS in Syria targeting its senior leadership. To counter the rising menace emanating from the sprawling camp and the IS’s insurgency in eastern and Central Syria, since December 2022 U.S. The February 2023 UN report of the Analytical and Sanctions monitoring team concerning Al Qaeda and IS reinforced the security threat posed by the Al-Hol camp as Islamic State’s major recruiting hub for minors, as a key financial node for laundering funds to fuel its insurgency, and for smuggling out detainees to replenish its ranks. ![]()
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