No military solution for Al Hol camp — CENTCOM commander

AMMAN — Countries need to step up and do their job by identifying their citizens in order to repatriate, rehabilitate and re-ingrate them from Al Hol camp in northeastern Syria, according to General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM). 

During a press conference in Amman on Monday, Kurilla said that there is no military solution for Al Hol camp.

“It’s very important to understand the history of the camp, it wasn’t always what it is right now,” Kurilla added. 

He stated that the camp started out as entirely displaced camp, with people trying to get away from some of the fighting in Iraq back in 2003. 

“In 2017 there were around 30,000 families in the camp. But there was no ISIS back then,” he added. 

He stated that it wasn’t until 2019, with the defeat of the so called “Physical Caliphate” that the camp swelled to almost 70,000 occupants, many of whom were family members of ISIS who had moved from Baghous into the camp.

“Since then, the numbers were almost 54,000 in the camp,” he added. 

He stated that Iraqis make up about half of the camp’s population, at 27,000 residents, “in addition to 18,000 Syrians, and about 8,500 foreign occupants”, said Kurilla. 

“Those foreigners are defined as non-Iraqi and non-Syrian. That is where the challenge is right now,” he added. 

He stated that 50 per cent of those in the camp don’t know where to live and would like to go back to their native country.

“Almost 50 per cent of the camp is ISIS, who believe in that vile ideology,” said Kurilla. 

He stated that they are trying to provide security to the camp, that security come from “our Syrian democratic force partner”. 

“They are doing the world a favour by providing security in the camp,” he added. 

“They are in the process of re-clearing the camp. They found weapons, explosives,” he said. 

He added that two Syrian democratic force members were killed in the camp two days ago, “which confirms that we have armed ISIS in the camp,” said Kurilla

“I encourage all the countries that have citizens there to repatriate their people,” he added. 

Kurilla said that detainees need to be put in the Iraqi system for prosecution, and families need to go back to their native country. 

“Seven hundred family members, so about 125-150 families, are being repatriated every month, which will take about four years,” he added. 

He highlighted that repatriation needs to be accelerated. He continued, “we need countries to identify their citizens at the camp, repatriate them and rehabilitate them.” 

He also stated that Jordan is the host nation for exercise “Eager Lion”. 

“Jordan hosted CENTCOM events for the past 12 years,” he added. 

A total of 1,850 US service members, 2,207 Jordanian Armed Forces personnel, and 800 coalition personnel from a total of 26 partner nations are participating in or observing the multilateral military training exercise “Eager Lion” from September 4 to 15 in Jordan, he said

“Of the 28 countries participating in Eager Lion, 10 are CENTCOM military partners,” he added. 

He stated that the partners are Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Lebanon. 

“Over the past two weeks, we conducted some remarkably impressive training,” he added. 

He listed out some of the sampling of the training that has been a part of Eager Lion so far, long range bomber mission, cyber activity, inter-agency communication and coordination, integrated air and missile defence and many more. 

“These exercises build interoperability, maintain strong partnerships in the region and enhance regional security,” he added.