SEED –
The Islamic State group that killed six US-backed Syrian fighters in eastern Syria on Monday said the killing was in retaliation for an operation going on inside a vast encampment that houses hundreds of thousands of people. tens of thousands of family members of this extremist group.
The IS-linked Aamaq news agency released a video showing six members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces near the eastern village of Ruwaished, where they were captured alive and then shot dead later in the day Sunday.
Despite defeat in Syria in 2019, when IS lost the last piece of land its fighters once controlled, the extremists’ cells continue to carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq, where they once occupied most of the territory of the two countries.
The latest attack occurred in Deir el-Zour province, eastern Syria, which borders Iraq, and where US troops are stationed at an oil and gas facility known as the Omar Field.
Last week, the US military said SDF fighters captured dozens of IS fighters and rescued four women who were chained inside tents at the large al-Hol camp, home to IS families.
The three-week operation is part of an effort to disband a large IS network at the camp, which is widely seen as a breeding ground for the next generation of IS extremists.
The al-Hol camp in Hassakeh province, northeastern Syria, has long been seen as a growing problem and there have been several military operations and raids there to root out threats. threat of IS.
About 50,000 Syrians and Iraqis are crammed into tents in the fenced-in camp. Nearly 20,000 of them are children; most of the rest are women, wives and widows of IS fighters. In a separate, heavily guarded section of the camp known as the annex, there are 2,000 more women from 57 other countries – considered the most staunch IS supporters – along with their children, with about 8,000 people.
