More Arrests Made in Ongoing Crackdown on IS at al-Hol Camp

WASHINGTON - U.S.-backed forces in northeastern Syria have arrested more than 70 people in their sweep of the al-Hol displaced-persons camp, which has emerged in recent months as a new hub for the Islamic State terror group.

The crackdown, launched Sunday by the Syrian Democratic Forces, has involved about 5,000 troops and internal security force personnel scouring the camp sector by sector, looking for anyone thought to be working with IS. Photos, posted by SDF social media accounts, showed heavily armed SDF personnel, accompanied by armored vehicles, moving into the camps and entering tents as they looked for IS operatives and collaborators in the operation's fifth day. “More than 70 individuals were arrested,” one SDF social media account tweeted Thursday. “Ammunition and other materials [were] confiscated.”