Killings surging in camp for Islamic State families
BEIRUT — The deaths stacked up: a police officer shot dead with a pistol equipped with a silencer, a local official gunned down, his son wounded, an Iraqi man beheaded. In total, 20 men and women were killed last month in the camp in northeastern Syria housing families of the Islamic State.
The slayings in alHol camp — nearly triple the deaths in previous months — are largely believed to have been carried out by Islamic State militants punishing perceived enemies and intimidating anyone who wavers from their extremist line, say Syrian Kurdish officials who run the camp but say they struggle to keep it under control.
The jump in violence has heightened calls for countries to repatriate their citizens languishing in the camp.
It has been nearly two years since the U.S.led coalition captured the last sliver of territory held by the Islamic State, ending their selfdeclared caliphate that covered large parts of Iraq and Syria.
AlHol houses the wives, widows, children and other family members of Islamic State militants — more than 80% of its 62,000 residents are women and children. The majority are Iraqis and Syrians, but it includes some 10,000 people from 57 other countries, housed in a highly secured separate area known as the Annex.
The camp has long been chaotic, with the hardcore militants among its population enforcing their will on others and seeking to prevent them from cooperating with Kurdish authorities guarding it.