US backs Iraqi camp threatens threat from Iraqi camp

The Iraqi government is expected to take about 100 Iraqi families from a large Syrian camp next week for the first time.

Repatriation is a move that U.S. officials see hopefully in a frustrated desperate effort to return thousands of Iraqis from the camp (known as a nursery). ISIL (ISIS) young fighters.

During a visit to Syria announced on Friday, Naval General Frank McKenzie, a senior U.S. general in the Middle East, expressed optimism that the transfer would take place from the al-Hol camp. He has repeatedly warned that young people in the camps are being “radicalized” and will become the next generation of dangerous fighters.

“It would be the first step in many repatriations like this, and I think that’s going to be the key to falling population. al-Hol camp, and indeed in other camps in the region, ”McKenzie told reporters traveling with him to Syria.

“Nations need to return citizens, repatriate them, reintegrate them, radicalize them when necessary, and turn them into productive elements of society.”

A little skepticism

A senior US official has said that the relocation of people from the camp in northeastern Syria is one of the issues being discussed by the U.S. and Iraqi governments as they work on a roadmap for future diplomatic and military relations. It was created at Thursday’s meetings when McKenzie made an unannounced stop in the capital Baghdad. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal considerations.

Iraqi leaders earlier this year talked about the repatriation of some citizens, but did not continue. So next week’s plans have met with a bit of skepticism, and it wasn’t clear if it would be the first step or a temporary agreement on a game change.

There is an Al-Hol camp 70,000 people – mostly women and children – Displaced by the Syrian civil war and the fighting against the ISIL armed group. Half of them are Iraqis. About 10,000 foreigners are in a safe annex, and many in the camp remain supporters of ISIL.

Many countries have refused to repatriate citizens from around the world who came to join ISIL after being named “caliphate” in 2014. The group’s physical retention in the territory ended in 2017, but many countries refused to repatriate their citizens. , Fearing their connection to ISIL.

‘Pay the net price’

In late March, the main forces in northeastern Syria, led by U.S.-backed Kurds, carried out a five-day search aided by U.S. forces inside al-Hol. At least 125 suspects were arrested.

Since then, McKenzie said Friday, security has improved at the camp. But, he added, security has no real impact on the radicalization of young people there.

“That’s what worries me,” he said, as he was far from the Turkish border at a base in northeastern Syria. “ISIL’s ability to reach, touch and convert these young people – unless we find a way back – will push us to pay an expensive price on the road.”

As McKenzie crossed eastern Syria, stopping at four U.S. posts, his message was short and straightforward: U.S. forces remain in Syria to fight the remnants of ISIL, so fighters cannot reunite. ISIL’s pockets are still active, especially west of the Euphrates River in large ungovernable territories controlled by the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad.

“There and in the camps, the conditions beneath the poverty and sectarianism that created IS still exist,” said Brigadier General Richard Bell, commander-in-chief of the Iraqi-Syrian coalition’s fight against ISIL, who traveled with McKenzie. .

McKenzie said it was important to maintain pressure against the armed group “because ISIS still intends to attack its homeland in the United States.”

“We want that not to happen.”