Syria unsafe for refugees to return: UN report

Idlib displaced

The latest report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic stated on Sept. 14 that Syria is “not fit for safe and dignified returns of refugees.” The report found that between July 2020 and June 2021, armed conflict increased in the country. The report documented 243 civilian deaths, but estimated that the total number of fatalities is actually far greater. The report also stressed the humanitarian crisis and ongoing human rights abuses in the country. Conditions were also found to be precarious for the 6.7 million displaced persons within the country.

The report estimated that 40,000 children are being detained in camps for suspected ISIS collaborators in the Kurdish-controlled east of the country. Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the Commission of Inquiry, said that these conditions indicate that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Syria ratified in 1993, is being “completely forgotten.”

“The parties to the conflict continue to perpetrate war crimes and crimes against humanity and infringing the basic human rights of Syrians,” commented Pinheiro. “The war on Syrian civilians continues, and it is difficult for them to find security or safe haven.”

The report recommended that the Syrian government and other parties to the conflict allow humanitarian organizations access to the country without restrictions, immediately cease perpetrating human rights abuses, and work towards a ceasefire.

From Jurist, Sept. 15

See our last post on the plight of Syrian refugees, and the Assad regime’s restrictions on aid.

Photo: UNHCR

  1. Call to repatriate women and children in Syria detention camps

    The organization Rights & Security International (RSIpublished a report calling for the immediate repatriation of women and children held in the al-Hol and Roj detention camps in northeast Syria.

    According to the report, an estimated 12,000 people from countries outside of Iraq and Syria, are being held in these camps (out of a total population of 60,000), and are experiencing conditions so harsh they amount “torture,” on the basis of a presumed connection to ISIS. UN experts have described conditions in both al-Hol and Roj camps as a blight on the conscience of humanity, with no end in sight for the women and children in the camps. (Jurist)

  2. ISIS attack on Syrian prison

    ISIS fighters attacked a prison run by local Kurdish forces at Hasaka in northeast Syria, in an attempt to free thousands of their followers. The militants detonated a car bomb outside the facility and then unleashed hails of gunfire at the guards. The attack set off deadly clashes with the Kurdish militia that controls the area, killing dozens of people and allowing scores of prisoners to flee. (NYT)

  3. Battle for Hasakah enters sixth day

    Residents of Hasakah in northeastern Syria endured a fifth night of gunfire and explosions as US-backed Kurdish forces and ISIS militants fight for control of al-Sina’a prison. (VOA)

  4. US air-strikes in battle for Hasakah

    Kurdish forces on Jan. 26 announced they have fully recaptured a prison in Hasakah that had been attacked by ISIS fighters, ending the biggest jihadist assault in the country in three years.

    More than 100 ISIS militants attacked Ghwayran (al-Sina’a), held by the autonomous Kurdish administration. Heavy fighting in and around the prison since it was taken on Jan. 20 killed 181 people, including 124 ISIS fighters, 50 Kurdish fighters and seven civilians. There was no immediate word on the fate of scores of minors held at the prison and caught in the crossfire. The death toll is epxected to rise.

    The US backed the Kurdish forces with armored vehicles, attack helicopters and air-strikes.

    Kurdish authorities are holding more than 12,000 suspected ISIS fighters and sympathizers with 50 different nationalities. They have long warned of jailbreaks since they do not have the capacity to hold, let alone place on trial, all the detainees. (AFP, NYT)

  5. ISIS leader killed in US raid in Syria: White House

    ISIS emir Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed during an overnight raid by US Special Forces in in northeastern Syria, the White House announced Feb. 3, ending a two-year hunt for the group’s leader. Local rescue workers said women and children were among at least 13 people killed during the raid. President Biden said al-Qurayshi died when he exploded a bomb, killing himself and members of his family. (LWJ, NYT, AP)

    As in the similar raid in which his predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in October 2019, al-Qurayshi was slain in an area of Idlib province controlled by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, the former Nusra Front).  

    A-Qurayshi was apparently also known as Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla.

  6. ISIS leader captured in US raid in Syria: Pentagon

    An ISIS bomb-maker who became a top figure in the organization, Hani Ahmed Al-Kurdi AKA “Wali of Raqqa,” was captured in a raid in the Turkish-controlled zone of northern Syria, the Pentagon said. (WaPo, ABC News)

  7. ISIS leader killed in US raid in Syria: Pentagon

    The Pentagon announced that it killed an ISIS leader, Maher al-Agal, in a drone strike outside Jindaris (Jindires), Aleppo governorate. Claims of no civilian casualties could not be immediately confirmed. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, al-Agal was a former prominent commander of the Islamic State group during its control of Raqqa and had since moved to the Afrin area in 2020, under Turkish occupation. He was most recently a commander in a Turkish-backed faction called Jaysh Al-Sharqiyyah.

    Last month, a US drone strike in Idlib killed a senior leader of the Horas al-Din group, Abu Hamzah al Yemeni. (AP, CBS)

  8. ISIS media spokesman gets life in prison

    A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has sentenced Mohammed Khalifa, a Canadian born in Saudi Arabia, to life in prison for his involvement with SIS as a media figure and fighter.

    Khalifa pleaded guilty in December 2021 to “conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.” Khalifa traveled to Syria in 2013 and swore allegiance to then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Khalifa was recruited by the ISIS media department in 2014, where he worked until 2018. During this time, he served as the lead English narrator and translator for as many as 15 propaganda videos. In two of the most brutal ISIS videos, a masked Khalifa actually executed captured Syrian soldiers. Khalifa surrendered to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2019. The SDF delivered him to the FBI for criminal charges. (Jurist)

  9. Kurdish forces carry out sweeps at al-Hol camp

    US-backed Kurdish fighters have arrested hundreds of suspected ISIS members in a weeks-long operation in northeast Syria’s al-Hol camp, which also reportedly led to the release of several women captives. The camp is home to some 56,000 people, including both supporters and victims of the extremist group. (TNH)

  10. ISIS operative killed in US raid in Syria: Pentagon

    A rare US helicopter raid on a Syrian village has killed an Islamic State arms smuggler, and two people have died in a separate air-strike, according to the US military.  The ISIS militant was hiding out in a government-held village in the country’s northeast when he was killed on Oct. 6, the military said. It is the first known operation the US has carried out against the Islamic State in a zone held by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

    Syrian state TV said it was carried out in the village of Muluk Saray in Hasakeh province.

    US Central Command said the target was Rakkan Wahid al-Shammri, an ISIS member “known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and fighters.” (Radio Australia)

  11. US funds detention camps for suspected ISIS sympathizers: report

    The US is reportedly funding the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria to upgrade detention centers that hold thousands of suspected supporters of the so-called Islamic State. In January, ISIS fighters launched an attack on a prison in Hassakeh, raising fears of a militant resurgence—but also revealing that hundreds of minors were being detained in what Human Rights Watch called “deeply degrading and often inhuman conditions.” (TNH)

  12. ISIS leader killed in battle with Syrian rebels

    ISIS said Nov. 30 that its leader Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi has been killed “in combat with enemies of God.” US Central Command said Hashimi had been killed in an operation carried out by rebels of the Free Syrian Army in Daraa province of southern Syria in mid-October. It hailed his death as “another blow” to the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

    Speaking in an audio message, ISIS said Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi has been named as the new leader. Qurashi refers to a tribe of the Prophet Mohammed, from whom ISIS leaders must claim descent. The previous ISIS chief, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, was killed in February this year in a US raid in Idlib province. (AFP)

  13. Another ISIS leader killed in US drone strike

    The US military says a senior ISIS leader who was responsible for planning attacks in Europe has been killed in a strike in Syria. Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri died in an undisclosed location April 3, according to US Central Command. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights placed the location as a spot “on the Kaftin-Killi road in the northern countryside of Idlib.” (BBC News, ANHA)

  14. ISIS leader killed in Turkish raid in Syria: Ankara

    Presumed ISIS leader Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, was killed in Syria in an operation carried out by Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced April 29. (AFP)