SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 29 March 2024, Friday |

Iraq takes back 111 ISIS-linked families from Syria

According to a local official, Iraqi authorities have deported 111 Iraqi families tied to the ISIS organization from a Kurdish-run camp in northern Syria.

They arrived on Saturday and were taken to the Al-Jadaa camp south of Mosul in Nineveh province, according to the unnamed official.

Since May 2021, at least 339 families associated with the militant ISIS organization have been relocated from the Al-Hol camp in northeast Syria to Al-Jadaa, which houses around 7,500 internally displaced persons.

According to Iraqi police, they include radical families from various regions of Iraq, notably the provinces of Salaheddine and Ramadi.

The thought of their return to their regions of origin has alarmed people who survived ISIS’s harsh control over one-third of Iraq between 2014 and 2017.

Iraq announced “success” over ISIS in late 2017 after pushing the militants out of all metropolitan areas with the help of a US-led coalition.

Final month, Iraqi officials revealed their plan to dismantle Al-Jadaa, Iraq’s last displaced-persons camp outside of the autonomous territory of Kurdistan.

However, the procedure is lengthy and is being met with opposition from local people who do not want ISIS families among them.

Six million Iraqis were displaced during ISIS’s leadership, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Around 1.2 million of people are still unable to return home, including over 100,000 who reside outside camps in “informal sites.”

    Source:
  • alarabiya