https://www.ourmidland.com/news/art...s-found-in-Syria-camp-housing-IS-17585928.php
BEIRUT (AP) — The beheaded bodies of two Egyptian girls were found Tuesday in a sprawling camp in northeastern Syria housing tens of thousands of women and children linked to the Islamic State group, an opposition war monitor and local officials said.
The bodies of the girls were found in the sewage system of the camp days after they went missing, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group said the girls had been beheaded. It was first such crime in weeks in the facility.
An official at the camp who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals said the girls were aged 11 and 13.
Siamand Ali, an official with the Kurdish-led U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, confirmed the killings.
Such grisly crimes in the camp are usually committed by members of IS sleeper cells, especially against women who resist abiding by the group’s extreme ideology. The Observatory, Ali and the official at the camp all blamed IS.
“This is another extremely sad reminder of how bad the conditions are. We continue with our pleas for all parties to do what they can to improve the situation there,” said Farhan Haq, U.N. deputy spokesman, when asked about the incident. “And of course, this needs to be thoroughly condemned and thoroughly investigated.”
The killings are the first since U.S.-backed Syrian fighters concluded a 24-day sweep at al-Hol in mid-September, during which dozens of extremists were detained and weapons were confiscated in the operation. The operation came after IS sleeper cells committed crimes inside the camp.
Following the rise of IS in 2014 and its declaration of a co-called Islamic caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq, thousands of men and women came from around the world to join the extremist group. IS lost the last sliver of land it once controlled in east Syria in March 2019, but since then its sleeper cells have been blamed for deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq….
BEIRUT (AP) — The beheaded bodies of two Egyptian girls were found Tuesday in a sprawling camp in northeastern Syria housing tens of thousands of women and children linked to the Islamic State group, an opposition war monitor and local officials said.
The bodies of the girls were found in the sewage system of the camp days after they went missing, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The group said the girls had been beheaded. It was first such crime in weeks in the facility.
An official at the camp who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals said the girls were aged 11 and 13.
Siamand Ali, an official with the Kurdish-led U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, confirmed the killings.
Such grisly crimes in the camp are usually committed by members of IS sleeper cells, especially against women who resist abiding by the group’s extreme ideology. The Observatory, Ali and the official at the camp all blamed IS.
“This is another extremely sad reminder of how bad the conditions are. We continue with our pleas for all parties to do what they can to improve the situation there,” said Farhan Haq, U.N. deputy spokesman, when asked about the incident. “And of course, this needs to be thoroughly condemned and thoroughly investigated.”
The killings are the first since U.S.-backed Syrian fighters concluded a 24-day sweep at al-Hol in mid-September, during which dozens of extremists were detained and weapons were confiscated in the operation. The operation came after IS sleeper cells committed crimes inside the camp.
Following the rise of IS in 2014 and its declaration of a co-called Islamic caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq, thousands of men and women came from around the world to join the extremist group. IS lost the last sliver of land it once controlled in east Syria in March 2019, but since then its sleeper cells have been blamed for deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq….
