In total, 20 men and women were killed last month in the sprawling camp in northeastern Syria housing families of the Islamic State group. If left there, the thousands of children in the camp risk being radicalized, local and UN officials warn. The brutal war took several years and left US-allied Kurdish authorities in control of eastern and northeast Syria, with a small presence of several hundred American forces still deployed there. IS cells in Syria are in contact with residents of the camp and support them, said a senior Kurdish official Badran Cia Kurd. In November, Kurdish authorities began an amnesty program for the 25,000 Syrian citizens in the camp, allowing them to leave.

Source: Egypt Independent February 18, 2021 08:24 UTC