Syria’s army on Wednesday entered the country’s vast Al-Hol detention camp that houses relatives of suspected Islamic State jihadists, from which Kurdish forces withdrew the day before, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
Thousands of former jihadists, including many Westerners, have been held in seven Kurdish-run prisons in north and east Syria, while tens of thousands of their suspected family members live in the Al-Hol and Al-Roj camps.
The camp in a desert region of Hasakeh province holds around 24,000 people, including some 6,200 women and children from around 40 nationalities.
The Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that it was ready to take responsibility for Al-Hol camp “and all IS prisoners” after Kurdish forces said they had been “compelled to withdraw” from the site to defend cities in Syria’s north, before the truce was announced.
On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said seven soldiers were killed when the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces targeted an arms depot in the country’s northeast, despite a fresh ceasefire announced a day earlier. (AFP)
