Small Wars Journal

Militant Women Loyal to ISIS Regroup Inside Refugee Camp, Terrorize Those Who Fled Battles

Sat, 04/20/2019 - 6:36am

Militant Women Loyal to ISIS Regroup Inside Refugee Camp, Terrorize Those Who Fled Battles by Erin Cunningham – Washington Post

AL-HOL, Syria - A militant band of women loyal to the Islamic State is terrorizing others who fled the battlefront for this sprawling camp in northeastern Syria, demanding they adhere to the strict codes once enforced by the group and creating a vexing problem for the Kurdish-led forces controlling the site.

 

In the teeming al-Hol displacement camp, the true believers have been threatening those they consider impious, brandishing knives, spitting and throwing stones at them, and even burning down their tents. Intelligence officials say Islamic State loyalists also have formed cells inside the camp to mete out punishment in a more systematic way.

 

The leaders of this movement are women from countries such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, which have produced some of the Islamic State’s most militant followers in recent years, according to officials from the Syrian ­Democratic Forces, or SDF, the Kurdish-led troops…

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