The U.S. Army has announced the arrest of five suspected members of the Islamic State jihadist group who were planning attacks on detention centers and the Al Hol displaced persons camp in northeastern Syria.
«Since the resumption of joint operations to defeat Islamic State between the United States and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), we have conducted six operations resulting in the detention of five Islamic State operatives,» U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has said.
It stressed in a message posted on its Twitter account that all of them are suspected of «planning attacks against detention facilities housing Islamic State fighters and the al-Hol camp», without the SDF having commented on the matter.
The Al Hol camp hosts thousands of family members of Islamic State members, mostly women and children, although there are also detainees who have no connection to the jihadist group. The SDF denounced on November 25 the death of eight of its members in a Turkish bombing in the area.
The SDF Media Center claimed that «the Turkish occupation launched a warplane and drone attack on security forces in Al Gol camp and Yerkin prison in Qamishlo, which host detained Islamic State terrorists and their families,» before accusing Ankara of trying to «allow detained terrorists and their families to escape from the camp in order for the terrorist organization to resurge.»
U.S. Air Force spokesman Pat Ryder said Tuesday that the joint operations had been resumed after a suspension caused by the bombing campaign unleashed by Turkey against Kurdish groups in the north of the Arab country.
Turkey launched operation ‘Sword Claw’ on Nov. 21, a bombing campaign against Kurdish groups following the Nov. 13 bombing in the Turkish city of Istanbul that left six dead and more than 80 wounded.
The Turkish government has blamed the Istanbul bombing on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and said that the main suspect had received orders from the Kurdish-Syrian militia People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the main element of the SDF – although both the PKK and the SDF have disassociated themselves from the attack.
