BALADI NEWS
Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria said Sunday they plan to hand 800 women and children, including relatives of jihadists, to their families in the first such transfer from AL-Hol camp, a British newspaper wrote.
The women and children -- all Syrians -- are living among the dregs of the Islamic State group in the Kurdish-run camp, home to nearly 74,000 people including more than 30,000 Syrians.
They will leave on Monday and be "taken to their families" at the request of local Arab tribes, according to Abd al-Mehbach, co-chair of the Kurdish administration's executive council.
The move follows an agreement brokered by the Kurdish administration and Arab tribal leaders during a meeting in the town of Ain Issa last month.
It is to be the first in a larger wave of releases that aim to empty Al-Hol of its Syrian residents, he said.
The next batch is expected to follow after the Eid al-Fitr holiday due to start sometime in the next few days marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Hoovered up during a final offensive against the jihadists by a US-backed Kurdish-led force, thousands of wives and children of ISIS fighters have been trucked into Al-Hol from a string of Syrian villages south of the camp in recent months.
Their numbers have created a major headache for the U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and have sparked concerns that the camp is emerging as a fresh jihadist powder keg.
Monday's group consists of residents from the northeastern city of Raqa, as well as the town of Tabqa, 70 kilometres (43 miles) west, according to Mehbach.
Those among them with suspected links to ISIS will be kept under surveillance by local Arab tribes, who have given guarantees.
Thousands of foreign fighters are being held in Kurdish-run prisons, while their wives and children languish in displacement camps.
Among the hordes of Syrians and Iraqis, some 12,000 foreigners are held in a fenced-off section of the Al-Hol camp, under the watch of Kurdish forces.
Source: Daily Mail.