July 02, 2020 / By mobanmarket
Syrian Kurdish forces said on Monday they are beefing up security in prisons and detention camps where tens of thousands of Isil militants and their supporters are held, fearing a reaction to the death of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
An official with the Kurdish-led internal security agency said forces were "on high alert" in anticipation of possible riots or attacks on the guards.
The news that the Islamic State chief died in a US special forces raid on Sunday morning has not been officially announced to the camps by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but many detainees have access to phones.
Women interviewed by local journalists on Monday in the largest of the camps, al-Hol – which holds nearly 70,000 Isil wives and their children – said it would not kill the Isil ideology but only make it stronger.
“Our faith will not change, and the day of revenge will come, and the Islamic State will remain,” one woman wearing a black facing-covering abaya said, using the Arabic word “Baqiya”, or remaining – a reference to the Isil slogan “remaining and expanding”.
The last moments of Islamic State leader
“Even if you are keeping us in this prison and abusing us, we are remaining. Even if our men are captured, we are also soldiers of the Islamic State.”
Another said “hundreds will be lining up to replace him” and that the idea of the caliphate did not die with one man.
The SDF has for months been sounding the alarm, warning that they have neither the money nor manpower to contain the radicalised and increasingly violent detainees. In recent weeks, detainees have stabbed a number of guards and beaten other residents to death.
Al-Hol, in particular, has variously been described as a “ticking timebomb”, a “mini caliphate”, and “Camp Bucca II” after the notorious US-run detention centre in Iraq which spawned Baghdadi and his cohort.
The camp is full of women refusing to give up on the Islamic State, and their children, who have been brainwashed by years of Isil indoctrination.
A few days after the decision was made more than 100 Isil detainees escaped from a prison in the Kurdish-held north-east, close to Turkey’s “buffer zone”, amid reports of Turkish shelling.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi | read more
Hundreds of Isil wives also fled nearby camp Roj, which had been holding some high-profile members, including British Isil recruiter and “matchmaker” Tooba Gondal.
In a major U-turn, Mr Trump then said hundreds would be sent back in to help the Kurds secure the oil from Isil. Some analysts saw the SDF’s decision to bolster resources as a quid pro quo for Mr Trump re-commitment of troops.
“The Pentagon tricked Trump into recommitting possibly even more US forces in Syria under the guise of grabbing the country’s oil,” Michael Weiss, co-author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, told the Telegraph.
“In reality, this is meant to reverse the hasty withdrawal decision from several weeks ago and reaffirm the US-SDF relationship.”
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