Six months ago ISIS lost all of its territory and tens of thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria — but it lives on.
AL-HOL, Syria — On a barren stretch of desert roadway in northeastern Syria lies the al-Hol refugee camp — a sprawling sea of tents, home to nearly 70,000 people. More than 90 percent of its inhabitants are women and young children, many under 12, according to the United Nations, which has dozens of workers at the camp.
In July a video from al-Hol appeared on social media platforms, showing a group of women and children cheering beneath an unfurled homemade ISIS flag. Shouts of “baqiya” could be heard. The report estimated that as many as 18,000 ISIS members remain loyal and active across Iraq and Syria, carrying out “assassinations, suicide attacks, abductions and arson of crops.”
Muthana has since been moved to a smaller nearby camp. Her fears, though, may have been justified — in July, a pregnant Indonesian woman was found dead inside al-Hol. The woman, according to local officials, had been beaten to death by a group of female ISIS supporters because of her refusal to wear a niqab. And on several occasions, the tents of those deemed nonbelievers have been set ablaze.
A truck, filled with women and children from Baghouz, shortly before leaving for the al Hol camp, March 2019.President Donald Trump has repeatedly praised the military victory over ISIS. In July he declared: “We did a great job with the caliphate. We have 100 percent of the caliphate, and we're rapidly pulling out of Syria. … Syria can handle their own problems.”
that describes open and overflowing sewage, contaminated drinking water and young children suffering from rashes, swollen bellies, and emaciated limbs, some succumbing to potentially treatable illnesses.from the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry for Syrian Arab Republic, noted that “women and children remain at higher risk of further radicalization” at the camp.With a $25 million bounty on his head, the elusive ISIS leader, the world’s most wanted terrorist, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, remains at large.
However, the group may not need to look beyond its former heartland, in Syria, to target the next generation to fill its ranks.
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