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Turkey
A French woman detained by Kurdish forces over links to ISIS in northeast Syria in February 2019. Photo: Bulent Kilic/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish state media reported Friday the rare “surrender” of five women wanted by Turkish forces for their alleged links to the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria.
The state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA) reported that the “terrorists” handed themselves in at the Cilvegozu border crossing in Hatay province on the Turkish-Syrian border, citing local sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Their nationalities and role in the terror group are unknown.
ISIS seized control of Iraq and Syria in summer 2014, including the major northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Their fighters consisted of locals and foreigners, some of whom were accompanied by their families.
The group was declared defeated in Iraq in December 2017 and Syria in March 2019, but sleeper cells remain active across both countries.
While frontline positions were reserved for men, women are known for playing prominent roles in ISIS as online recruiters and member of the Hisba, a morality police brigade notorious for its brutality against civilians. There are also ongoing court cases in the US and Germany against women accused of involvement in the enslavement of Yezidi women and girls.
Turkey has detained 2,280 members of the terror group from 30 different countries, according to Turkish officials, and has begun deporting them to their countries of origin.
It has also arrested several relatives of late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, including his sister.
Turkey is a member of the Global Coalition against ISIS but has been accused of sheltering members of the terror group. Several members of proxy groups used by Turkey in its Operation Peace Spring in northeast Syria are said to be ISIS militants.
Turkey support the Coalition through “hosting Coalition assets in its bases, participating in air operations and targeting terrorist elements in Syria; diminishing the financing and recruiting capabilities of Daesh [ISIS]; and delivering aid and providing shelter for displaced Syrians,” according to Turkey’s profile on the Coalition’s website.
It has carried out hundreds of “military and counter-terrorism operations” since 2016, according to the Coalition.
ISIS was recognized as a terrorist organization by Ankara in 2013 and the group has conducted 10 suicide bombings, seven explosions and four armed attacks since then, killing at least 315 people, according to AA records.
Most of the ISIS-linked women - whose husbands were either killed or escaped after the group’s last bastion Baghouz in Syria was controlled by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in March 2019 - now live in the notorious al-Hol camp in Hasaka province.
The women have reportedly formed groups inside the camp trying to implement the ISIS version of Islamic Sharia law, and have attacked camp guards.
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