Syrian analyst: Al-Hawl camp will be a ticking time bomb for the return of the terrorist organization
Four years have passed since the liberation of Syria from the grip of ISIS, but those years have not been enough to end the specter of terrorism once again hovering around the place. Dozens continue to die at the hands of ISIS members who have recently intensified their terrorist operations, leaving wounds that have not healed yet, and uprooting the civilians whose relatives are among the kidnapped or disappeared.
ISIS scandals
The latest of these terrorist operations is what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated at the number of civilians and military personnel killed by the terrorist group “Daesh” in March.
In March, ISIS cells carried out 13 operations, including surprise attacks, targeted attacks and infiltrations on military and security positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces and formations under their banner, in northern and eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory said.
According to the Observatory, the operations took place in the following areas: 11 in Deir ez-Zor, two in Hasakeh, killing 10 SDF and ISF personnel and one civilian, and wounding nine others.
Terrorist operations
Since the beginning of 2023, he said, ISIS has carried out 41 operations in northern and eastern Syria, including armed attacks, attacks and bombings, which resulted in 31 deaths (five civilians, 23 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Internal Security Forces, other military formations operating in the Autonomous Administration areas, and one unidentified individual and two ISIS members).
According to the Observatory, the areas of operation were divided into:
7 operations in Raqqa that killed 3 military personnel.
Twenty-eight operations in Deir al-Zour killed five civilians, one unidentified, and 13 military personnel.
Two Aleppo Operations Killed 6 Military Personnel, Including Commanders.
4 operations in al-Hasakeh resulted in the wounded and the death of one soldier and two ISIS elements.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the deaths of 393 people during March 2023 in military operations in Syria; Among them were 195 civilians (146 men, 23 women, and 26 children), 29 of whom were killed by ISIS, and two by other terrorist elements.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 198 non-civilians were killed in military operations last month, including 49 Syrian army troops, 11 ISIS fighters, one terrorist, the rest from other armed factions and one American contractor.
Al-Hawl Camp
Ahmed Sheikho, a Syrian analyst and writer, said there are fears about the return of the Daesh terrorist group after it became very active recently. The Daesh terrorist organization has claimed 34 attacks in southern Syria, pointing out that the second return of Daesh as a major terrorist force would represent a threat to global stability after it had previously controlled large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq until it was defeated by the US-led anti-terrorism campaign.
The next potential generation of ISIS will also be among the more than 25,000 children in al-Hawl camp at risk who are prime targets for ISIS extremism, he told Al-Arab Mubasher. ISIS spends a great deal of money on its supporters inside al-Hawl camp and elsewhere through underground communication channels, he said, so women work to ensure that the younger generation carries the same ISIS ideology and continues to play a role in terrorism as time bombs.
