BAGHDAD — Fifty Iraqi males suspected of belonging to the Islamic State (IS) and who had been captured in northeastern Syria had been handed over to the Iraqi authorities Jan. 8 on the nation’s northwestern border crossing of Rabia.
Because the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) proceed rising nearer to the federal government in Damascus, and issues fester concerning the potential for jailbreaks from jail amenities housing hundreds of Iraqis in addition to Syrians and others accused of involvement in IS in northeastern Syria, efforts appear to be underway to deliver again extra people throughout the border.
On Nov. 8, a significant planned attack on the infamous Sinaa jail within the Ghweiran neighborhood within the western a part of town of Hasakah was thwarted.
The SDF introduced Dec. 25 that that they had arrested the man they held to have been answerable for the plan to assault the jail, calling him an “emir” (“chief”), however with out giving data on the place and date of the arrest.
Native sources concurred that he had been concerned within the jailbreak operation, however mentioned he was not an emir and as a substitute answered to others from Raqqa. They claimed he had been arrested in an space of the Deir al-Zor desert close to Abu Khashab.
One native Arab supply within the space with kinfolk linked to IS claimed in early January that the present IS “emir” for the Hasakah space was a person in his 50s from the Mashhada tribe and initially from a village close to the city of Markada within the southern a part of Hasakah province.
A US Division of Protection Workplace of Inspector General report issued Nov. 4 notably warned, “[The SDF] independently carried out solely human intelligence gathering, counting on the Coalition for different intelligence capabilities. The SDF, with Coalition help, continued [to] enhance safety at detention amenities holding ISIS fighters, however CJTF-OIR reported that circumstances remained substandard, including to the specter of breakouts.”
Iraqi safety and counterterrorism analyst Fadhil Abu Ragheef informed Al-Monitor in a Jan. 15 message that the boys handed over to the Iraqi safety forces Jan. 8 suspected of being a part of IS had been transferred to Mosul and that after an preliminary investigation they might be transferred to central courts.
In response to the government-linked Iraqi Safety Cell, the handover had been coordinated by the Joint Operations Command and “the Syrian aspect of the border.”
Requests made for additional data on intelligence sharing between the SDF and the Iraqi safety forces to each Iraqi officers and the worldwide coalition had not been answered by the point of publication.
The Bas Information web site, which focuses on Kurdish areas, reported Nov. 9 that the worldwide coalition had transferred 15 IS leaders to a base it has a presence in Shaddadi, in Hasakah province however south of town, and that “the switch course of comes as a prelude to transferring the insurgents to Iraq,” which may suggest that the coalition acts as an middleman between SDF intelligence officers and their Iraqi counterparts.
The media outlet cited unnamed sources as saying, “The CIA interrogated the detained IS leaders inside Sinaa jail in Hasakah earlier than they had been transferred to Shaddadi base.”
A earlier batch of about 100 alleged IS fighters had been handed over to the Iraqi safety forces in early December, and previous to that in February and September 2021.
Alongside the alleged IS fighters handed over Jan. 8 had been additionally 403 Iraqi nationals that had been within the sprawling al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria. The camp hosts largely households believed to be linked to IS.
A complete of round 2,150 Iraqis have reportedly been repatriated to this point, whereas over 19,000 of the just about 60,000 folks nonetheless residing within the camp are regarded as of Iraqi nationality.
A study published in November discovered that of the 78 folks identified to have been killed within the camp that yr, 58 were Iraqis and at the least 10 were beheaded.
On Jan. 8, Iraqi media reported that the Jadaa internally displaced individuals camp in Ninevah province would later within the week be receiving a bunch of 125 Iraqi households transferred from al-Hol camp.
Some famous that a whole lot of kinfolk of suspected IS members had been transferred to Jadaa camp since Could, and that this had sparked a adverse response from the inhabitants residing within the space.
The concept to switch Iraqi “IS households” to this camp had been proposed years in the past, nevertheless it was solely in 2021 that it was carried out.
In an August 2019 interview with this journalist, present Ninevah provincial Gov. Najm al-Jabouri had commented on the proposal by saying, “We must always put them far-off from Mosul, Salahuddin even Anbar. As a result of we’ve got quite a lot of refugees right here already. The refugees right here have suffered quite a bit and if we put these unhealthy folks with them … this isn’t a good suggestion.”
Jabouri served as Ninevah operations commander in 2016-17, throughout battles against IS that retook Mosul.
In the meantime, jihadist fighters have in latest months reportedly been making their approach from Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib to Iraq by way of SDF territory.
One longstanding Syrian supply of this journalist mentioned that the fighters had been now based mostly within the Hamrin Mountains and some areas of Iraq’s Diyala region close to the Iranian border. Diyala has seen quite a few IS attacks in latest months.
Iraq remained the highest nation on this planet when it comes to variety of assaults carried out by IS’ numerous regional branches final yr with a complete of 1,127 self-reported attacks in contrast with 415 in Nigeria, which got here in second.
