NGO folks who helped process these detainees (Free Burma Rangers), estimated that about 90% of the women were hard core ISIS supporters, fully committed to their ideology.
Posted on 03/12/2019 11:56:08 PM PDT by BeauBo
About 20,000 Iraqi refugees, including women and children, are expected to return to their hometowns in weeks under an agreement with the Federal Government of Iraq, a senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday.
Over the past few weeks, thousands of people, many of whom were the wives and children of Islamic State members, either surrendered or were taken from the front lines in the battle against the extremist group in Syria.
Due to the significant number of civilians, the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had to slow down their advance to liberate the last territory the Islamic State controls in Baghouz, located in eastern Syria.
Most of them have been transferred to the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria where some 65,000 people are currently living. Many of them are Iraqis who fled from the Islamic State’s lost territory in Iraq, fearing revenge from Shia militias.
“Among the people who reached al-Hol camp you have a significant number of people who are of Iraqi origin. Figures are not official, but probably we are talking about 20,000 people, including women and children,” Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC regional director for the Middle East, told Reuters in Geneva.
“The Iraqi government has expressed its will to bring those people back, but it’s obviously a challenging situation,” he added. “Those people are considered a security threat, so it means that they will have to go through a screening process.”
He did not provide a specific date about the transfer of the 20,000 Iraqis but said it would be done in weeks or months.
He mentioned that most of them are civilians, but they could also include Islamic State fighters.
Recently, Iraqi authorities stated that the SDF had already handed 280 Iraqi and foreign detainees to Baghdad.
(Excerpt) Read more at kurdistan24.net ...
NGO folks who helped process these detainees (Free Burma Rangers), estimated that about 90% of the women were hard core ISIS supporters, fully committed to their ideology.
Iraq agrees to take back the Iraqi ISIS prisoners from the SDF over the next few weeks and months - about a third of the population in the SDF Detention facility at al Hol.
Maybe the Syrian Regime will take some/all of the Syrians.
It is a lot of mouths to feed, and a lot of trials to conduct.
1 min film of captured Baghouz ISIS camp area.
A foxhole, trench or similar structure every 20 ft.
There’s no “civilized” way to capture such a place.
https://twitter.com/smmsyria/status/1105739406806261760
Captured ISIS wives confront cameraman:
https://twitter.com/smmsyria/status/1105416476666875904
American indians would give their captives to the women and children for torturing... I always thought that especially cruel.
They don’t act sufficiently captive.
The sun has been up for a while there. I am waiting to see what the place looks like, after last night’s “Baghouz Barbecue”.
They were blowing it up real good with airstrikes and artillery, and firing heavy machine guns in from both sides, like they did the two nights before, but it seemed like a lot more burning was taking place last night.
Possibly they could enter today, but if there is still resistance, they will likely just open a corridor for any who want to surrender, and give the place another good going over after nightfall.
We’re showing we learned the lesson from Raqqa: there’s no way but an old-fashioned siege to clear ISIS from a city.
All the fancy expensive weapons won’t limit damage. So just surround the place and bomb it.
They interview the captives (and I assume get DNA, facial recognitio, fingerprints etc).
All the military age captives say they were just cooks.
Ben Wedeman from CNN (actually a very credible war reporter, even though CNN pays his salary), reported about last night’s (12-13 March) activity:
“All night long the shelling, air strikes, gun battles continued. Much, much more intense than previous nights.”
“They don’t act sufficiently captive.”
GEN Votel, the Commanding General for all of Central Command (and an architect of the successful operation to destroy the ISIS Caliphate) recently warned Congress:
“what we are seeing now is not the surrender of ISIS as an organization, but a calculated decision to preserve...by taking their chances in camps for internally displaced persons, or going to ground in remote areas & waiting for the right time for resurgence”
“I assume they get DNA, facial recognition, fingerprints etc”
I have heard they are fingerprinting and photographing the men, but I don’t know if they are photographing the women (they make a big fuss about that). Also, I have not heard anyone confirm that DNA is being taken.
There are Coalition personnel there with the SDF processing detainees and conducting interrogations, so I would think they would be capturing everything. But who knows. Everybody seemed surprised by how many ISIS and families there were.
“just surround the place and bomb it.”
That is urban warfare for you - so many places to hide that casualties on an assault force can be astronomical, unless you kind of lay it flat first.
Not only has ISIS made extensive use of human shields, they also have adopted a deliberate strategy of trying to inflict lots of casualties with booby traps, mines and IEDs. A lot of high explosive triggers that stuff before Infantry has to walk through it. Same with ISIS tunnels and trenches. Either you pay with extra tonnage of explosives, or you pay with lots of lives.
I guess they have drone eyes on them constantly, and still have targets to hit.
“urban warfare “
We tried something different in Raqqa: targeted strikes that would limit civilian caualties.
It didn’t work. Raqqa was destroyed anyway and there were huge casualties (and we spent a fortune on the weapons).
I guess we learned a lot that will be useful in some situations.
But the best method is to let the Queen of the battlefield loose and give an escape corridor. As Russia and Syria did.
Here there is no place for an escape corridor to go to. But it’s the same idea.
Hope they’re getting that DNA.
Between 4:00 and 6:00 AM on Wednesday, Several ISIS fighters tried suicide vest attacks on the Kurdish positions, unsuccessfully.
It does not seem like a realistic breakout attempt. It may just be some of their guys who are too hard core to surrender, throwing in the towel.
“Raqqa was destroyed anyway”
Lots of Mosul too - a major city, that had well over a million residents.
Raqqa was a deliberate attempt to “do better” than Mosul IMO. But failed.
Good sign that ISIS hasn’t been able to hit back in ‘Rojava’ against the SDF.
Interesting that SDF is so helpful after we’ve somewhat let them down. Russia is patrolling with Russians in occupied Kurdish Afrin.
What a strange and barbaric war. It’s like watching an ancient history come to life from the middle ages.
ISIS has been striking in Rojava, and Iraq. A campaign of small guerrilla/terrorist style attacks has been underway in liberated areas, especially those areas that were predominantly Sunni Arab, like Raqqa, Tabqa and Hajin.
It is nowhere near the scale to threaten SDF control, and if there is one thing at which the Iraqi Kurds have demonstrated excellent capability, it is internal security. We could not ask for a better group to police these hotbeds after the war is over.
“Interesting that SDF is so helpful” It really is their war against ISIS - kind of an existential struggle for them. We are by far the best thing going for them, with all of our intelligence targeting, precision airstrikes, training and equipping their forces, sending mile long convoys of trucks full of support and reconstruction aid, and deterring the Turks from doing what they did in Afrin. We are far too helpful to them, for them not to be helpful to us.
It did take some selling to get the Kurds to bite off taking the fight outside of traditionally Kurdish areas, and into the Arab heartland of ISIS along the Middle Euphrates River Valley. But we bring exceptional value to them in the deal, and it is vital to their survival to see ISIS defeated, rather than just temporarily pushed out of Kurdish areas.
“Syria’s known oil reserves are mainly in the eastern part of the country in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate near its border with Iraq and along the Euphrates River”
Has somewhat to do with their willingness to fight in the South.
Of course, they’ll have to trade the oil fields to Syria for post-war terms. But at least they’ll have something to trade.
Gotta admit I’m surprised at how well things are going for the Kurds, except for Afrin. Maybe they do have reason to see we’re a good ally.
Kipling had the full measure of Islamic women over 100 years ago. We ignore history at our peril, as has been obvious since 9/11.
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!
The Young British Soldier
http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_youngbrit.htm
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