Underground ISIS training camp discovered in Hol Camp

The security forces of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Asayîş) have discovered an underground tunnel in the Hol reception and internment camp. It was used for the training of the ISIS youth organisation “Cubs of the Caliphate” and as a hiding place for young assassins. “The tunnel was built in a way that allows them to attack by surprise and retreat immediately,” an Asayîş spokesperson said after the discovery.

The underground training camp was set up in a tent in the “Muhajirat” section, where members of foreign jihadists of the ISIS group are held. Nine minors between the ages of thirteen and fifteen who were taught Sharia in the tent have been placed in the care of a rehabilitation centre by the Asayîş. They are children of parents with Indonesian, Turkmen, French and Russian citizenship.

Responsible for indoctrinating the children with ISIS ideology are the structures set up in the Muhajirat sector by ISIS supporters loyal to the line. These female jihadists have also set up the Hisba force, modelled on the so-called Al-Khansa Brigade (Liwa al-Khansa), the ISIS religious police for women. This force repeatedly commits atrocities against people who do not adhere to the ISIS’ norms of behaviour. Since the beginning of the year, there have already been more than a hundred murder cases in the Hol Camp, all of which are said to be the work of the Hisba troop and the “Cubs of the Caliphate”. Nine of them are now being given the chance for a new and, above all, peaceful life, free of extremist thoughts and ideas, at the Hori therapy centre. The facility in the village of Tel Maarouf, east of Qamişlo, is run by the Autonomous Administration and is the only rehabilitation centre for children from ISIS families. Currently, more than a hundred children and adolescents live there.