Things are going from bad to worse at Al-Hawl camp four months after some 60,000 people ended up there from the fighting in Baghouz. The Coalition had apparently not considered, or planned for, so many ISIS families. Because the Coalition focuses on fighting ISIS it doesn’t do enough follow up or deal with civilian areas enough. It was supposed to deal with stabilization, but since it works “by, with and through” the SDF, that means a very small footprint.
So the IDPs and ISIS supporters were moved from Baghouz to Hawl and unsurprising they began to reconstitute. Now there have been stabbings and increasing signs of extremism.
“We are mujahideen women & a ticking time bomb” Group of women in Al Hawl Camp, Syria, urge ISIS leader Al Baghdadi to reestablish caliphate.
The tweet notes: “In 9-min video group say they would rather die under bombs & machine guns than live among enemies & threaten to avenge their internment.”
Hassan Hassan wrote that this is a sign of a mess up in real time and incompetence on the ground.
