Syria confirms ‘mass escape’ from camp housing relatives of ISIL fighters
Al Jazeera
Official says relatives of ISIL escaped from al-Hol following the SDF’s withdrawal from the camp last month.
A Syrian official has confirmed “mass escapes” from a facility housing relatives of suspected ISIL (ISIS) fighters in northern Syria last month after the withdrawal of Kurdish-led forces who had previously controlled the camp.
Noureddine al-Baba, the spokesman for Syria’s Ministry of Interior, told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that Syrian forces had discovered more than 138 breaches in the camp’s 17km (11-mile) perimeter wall.
“When our forces arrived, they found cases of collective escapes due to the camp having been opened up in a haphazard manner,” he said.
“We observed cases of mass escape resulting from the opening of internal berms and checkpoints of the camp,” he said.
Al-Hol, located in the Hasakah province near the border with Iraq, was the largest camp for relatives of suspected ISIL fighters in northeastern Syria and had been under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
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