MOSUL: The return of dozens of Iraqi families suspected of links to the Daesh group from Syria to Mosul has sparked fears among residents who survived the horrors of Daesh rule.
Around 300 people from some 90 families left the Kurdish-run Al-Hol camp in northeast Syria on Tuesday under Iraqi army escort, a Kurdish administration official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
It was the first repatriation of Iraqi families from the camp, which is home to more than 60,000 people including relatives of Daesh fighters, and came as part of an agreement between Baghdad and the multinational coalition battling the militiants.
But the move has stirred up nightmares for many Mosul residents.
For three years, Mosul was the heart of Daesh’s self-proclaimed “caliphate.”
Daesh fighters imposed a strict interpretation of Muslim “sharia” law, banning music and smoking and meting out brutal punishments, including public beheadings, for those who violated their rules.
“We are totally opposed to their return,” said Omar, a 28-year-old soldier, whose father was killed by Daesh fighter.
“Our future is dark and dangerous because the militants will live near us,” said Omar, who declined to give his surname for security reasons.
“They are a time bomb.”
Iraq formally declared victory against Daesh in late 2017, a few months after ousting the militiants from Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province.
The Syrian Kurdish administration official said the departures marked a “first wave” of Iraqi families to leave Al-Hol.
The families were sent toward Qayyarah, an area south of Mosul that is home to the Al-Jadaa camp.
That camp hosts almost 7,500 displaced people and families of jihadists in two separate areas, the Iraqi ministry for the displaced says.
“How can we accept their return while many people are still grieving for at least one member of their family who disappeared after being arrested by Daesh and whose body has never been found?” said Omar.
Syria’s Kurds have repeatedly urged the international community to repatriate foreign nationals held in the country’s northeast, but the calls have largely fallen on deaf ears.
Iraqis make up nearly half of Al-Hol’s inhabitants, according to the United Nations.
“It is the state’s duty to receive repatriated Iraqis and settle them in existing camps before integrating them into their regions of origin,” said Evan Gabro, minister for migration and the displaced.
Qayyarah district administrative director Salah Hasan Al-Jubburi sought to reassure residents.
The families “do not represent a security danger, though I understand popular opposition since they come from Al-Hol,” Jubburi said.
He said most of the arrivals were women and children, and almost all were originally from neighboring Anbar province, also a former jihadist bastion.
“There are just four or five families that are originally from Nineveh,” Jubburi said.
Ali Al-Bayati, member of Iraqi’s human rights commission, said the residents’ fears stemmed from a “lack of transparency.”
“Nobody knows if these people have been interrogated or if they were subject to an investigation,” he said.
“Before accepting them, (the authorities) should have ensured that none of them were charged or had committed crimes.”
Omar Al-Husseini, a human rights activist from Mosul, expressed skepticism.
“The government must be cautious” because the families have spent years in the Al-Hol camp under the influence of militants, he said.
“Is the state able to integrate them and above all, protect society?“
More than three years after Iraq declared Daesh defeated, nearly 1.3 million people remain internally displaced, one-fifth of them in camps, according to the UN.
Iraqi authorities have accelerated the closure of camps in recent months, but the International Organization for Migration says many residents are unable to return home as they are often accused of links to IS.
For Omar the soldier, life with the returnees will be “impossible.”
“They have kept their extremist ideas,” he said.
Fear in Iraq’s Mosul as Daesh families return from Syria
https://arab.news/b8u6r
Fear in Iraq’s Mosul as Daesh families return from Syria
- For three years, Mosul was the heart of Daesh’s self-proclaimed “caliphate”
Trump says ‘hopefully’ no need for military action against Iran
- US president said he is speaking with Iran and left open the possibility of avoiding a military operation
- An Iranian military spokesman warned Tehran’s response to any US action would not be limited
PARIS: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he hoped to avoid military action against Iran, which has threatened to strike American bases and aircraft carriers in response to any attack.
Trump said he is speaking with Iran and left open the possibility of avoiding a military operation after earlier warning time was “running out” for Tehran as the United States sends a large naval fleet to the region.
When asked if he would have talks with Iran, Trump told reporters: “I have had and I am planning on it.”
“We have a group headed out to a place called Iran, and hopefully we won’t have to use it,” the US president added, while speaking to media at the premiere of a documentary about his wife Melania.
As Brussels and Washington dialed up their rhetoric and Iran issued stark threats this week, UN chief Antonio Guterres has called for nuclear negotiations to “avoid a crisis that could have devastating consequences in the region.”
An Iranian military spokesman warned Tehran’s response to any US action would not be limited — as it was in June last year when American planes and missiles briefly joined Israel’s short air war against Iran — but would be a decisive response “delivered instantly.”
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia told state television US aircraft carriers have “serious vulnerabilities” and that numerous American bases in the Gulf region are “within the range of our medium-range missiles.”
“If such a miscalculation is made by the Americans, it will certainly not unfold the way Trump imagines — carrying out a quick operation and then, two hours later, tweeting that the operation is over,” he said.
An official in the Gulf, where states host US military sites, said that fears of a US strike on Iran are “very clear.”
“It would bring the region into chaos, it would hurt the economy not just in the region but in the US and cause oil and gas prices to skyrocket,” the official added.
‘Protests crushed in blood’
Qatar’s leader Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian held a call to discuss “efforts being made to de-escalate tensions and establish stability,” the Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
The European Union, meanwhile, piled on the pressure by designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a “terrorist organization” over a deadly crackdown on recent mass protests.
“’Terrorist’ is indeed how you call a regime that crushes its own people’s protests in blood,” said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, welcoming the “overdue” decision.
Though largely symbolic, the EU decision has already drawn a warning from Tehran.
Iran’s military slammed “the illogical, irresponsible and spite-driven action of the European Union,” alleging the bloc was acting out of “obedience” to Tehran’s arch-foes the United States and Israel.
Iranian officials have blamed the recent protest wave on the two countries, claiming their agents spurred “riots” and a “terrorist operation” that hijacked peaceful rallies sparked over economic grievances.
Rights groups have said thousands of people were killed during the protests by security forces, including the IRGC — the ideological arm of Tehran’s military.
In Tehran on Thursday, citizens expressed grim resignation.
“I think the war is inevitable and a change must happen. It can be for worse, or better. I am not sure,” said a 29-year-old waitress, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“I am not in favor of war. I just want something to happen that would result in something better.”
Another 29-year-old woman, an unemployed resident of an upscale neighborhood in northern Tehran, said: “I believe that life has highs and lows and we are now at the lowest point.”
Trump had threatened military action if protesters were killed in the anti-government demonstrations that erupted in late December and peaked on January 8 and 9.
But his more recent statements have turned to Iran’s nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at making an atomic bomb.
On Wednesday, he said “time is running out” for Tehran to make a deal, warning the US naval strike group that arrived in Middle East waters on Monday was “ready, willing and able” to hit Iran.
Conflicting tolls
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it has confirmed 6,479 people were killed in the protests, as Internet restrictions imposed on January 8 continue to slow verification.
But rights groups warn the toll is likely far higher, with estimates in the tens of thousands.
Iranian authorities acknowledge that thousands were killed during the protests, giving a toll of more than 3,000 deaths, but say the majority were members of the security forces or bystanders killed by “rioters.”
Billboards and banners have gone up in the capital Tehran to bolster the authorities’ messages. One massive poster appears to show an American aircraft carrier being destroyed.
