Daesh* is preparing to free its fighters and followers currently held at prisons and displacements camps across Syria and Iraq, a report published by the Institute for the Study of War says.
On 16 September, the leader of the terrorist organisation, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, released a 30-minute recording titled “Do Deeds”, whose authenticity has yet to be verified, where he reportedly signalled the start of the new campaign by calling upon the members of the group “to resist and lead the fight for five years” in order to liberate prisoners and women detained and currently held in jails.
“Daily operations are underway on different fronts,” Al-Baghdadi allegedly said in a tape, by potentially referring to several regions such as Mali and the Levant without specific details being given.
“How can a Muslim enjoy life?” the Daesh leader then added, asking how his followers could “accept to live while Muslim women are suffering in the camps of diaspora and the prisons of humiliation under the power of the Crusaders?”
“As for the worst and most important matter, the prisons, the prisons, oh soldiers of the caliphate. Your brothers and sisters, do your utmost to free them and tear down the walls restricting them,” the recording read.
The report by the Institute also argued that fundraising for the campaign has been carried out through encrypted channels – such as Telegram – possibly since June 2019. The group has already been active in displacement camps in Northern Syria and is now preparing to conduct similar prison brakes in Iraq and Syria.
The report came several days after US President Donald Trump warned Europe about the urgency of taking back foreign fighters originating in Europe from displacement camps, arguing that if they fail to repatriate the prisoners, the US would release them on European borders.
“They mostly come out of Europe, and we've done them a tremendous favour ... So they have to make their decision. Otherwise, we're releasing them at the border,” said Trump to reporters at the Oval Office on Friday.
There are around 70,000 people currently detained at just one facility, the Hawl camp in Northern Syria, mostly women and children who lived under the self-proclaimed Daesh caliphate, and more than 8,000 fighters are currently held in jails in Iraq and Syria. There are also approximately 2,000 foreign fighters detained by US-allied Kurdish militias.
Several break-out attempts at the camp have been reported recently; the US has been urged to increase its security measures at the facilities, but also called upon European nations for additional support and repatriation of its nationals, who had joined the terrorist organisation, back to their home countries. The US has already taken back 13 children and eight fighters, six of them are now facing criminal charges.
Daesh is a terrorist organisation that sought to establish a religious caliphate led according jihadist principles over the entire Muslim world; it was substantially defeated by Kurdish forces aided by an international coalition, losing almost all of its previously-held territory in Iraq and Syria by March 2019.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/IS/ISIL/the Islamic State) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and other countries
