ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Friday they captured an Islamic State (ISIS) member in Hasaka province accused of smuggling people out of al-Hol camp.
“As part of ongoing operations against remnants of ISIS cells, our SDF’s military operations teams (TOL), with support from the International Coalition, conducted a security operation on Thursday, targeting a member of an ISIS terrorist cell in the village of Al-Tuwaimin, Al-Shaddadi town, southeast of al-Hasaka,” read a statement from the SDF.
“Following intelligence on the movements and activities of the terrorist Zahir al-Kaidi al-Fian, also known as Abu Ghazi, our forces raided his place and successfully captured him.
The terrorist Zahir was an active ISIS member involved in smuggling terrorists, particularly foreign ISIS women, out of al-Hol camp,” the statement added.
He was caught with two AK-47 rifles, ten magazines and one military telescope.
The Kurdish-led and US-backed SDF fought the lion’s share of the battle against ISIS and ultimately defeated the jihadists territorially in their last bastion of Baghouz in 2019. They are now in control of numerous detention facilities that house tens of thousands of veteran ISIS fighters and camps like al-Hol where some 40,000 ISIS-linked people, mainly women and children, are held. The camp has been branded a breeding ground for terrorism and Kurdish authorities have repeatedly called on the international community to repatriate their citizens.
ISIS is trying to take advantage of Syria’s evolving security landscape following the overthrow of the regime in Damascus by a coalition of rebels.
The SDF, which controls northeast Syria (Rojava), is working to prevent the jihadists from reestablishing their presence, but has warned that its ability to combat ISIS in the east is being undermined by an offensive against their forces by Turkey and its allied militias in the north.
