"The children crowded the wire fence, waiting for the guard to turn his back, and made a break for it. They pumped their little legs furiously but did not make it far in the squelching mud, and were quickly chased back inside, grinning and joking to their friends in Bosnian as another guard scolded them, his rifle swinging by his side while he wagged his finger."
"Since 2019, life inside al-Hawl , the vast detention facility in the remote Syrian desert which holds at least 24,000 suspected members of IS from 42 different countries, has stood nightmarishly still. But on Monday, time at this vast prison camp lurched back into motion, dizzyingly fast. Camp residents watched in amazement on Monday afternoon as their Kurdish prison guards suddenly disappeared and then hours later, fighters they had never seen before showed up."
Children in al-Hawl camp tried to run past guards but were quickly chased back through squelching mud while mothers who travelled to Syria to allegedly join Islamic State stood silently with packed bags. Many children have been held in the camp since infancy because parents were suspected of involvement with Islamic State. Since 2019, life inside al-Hawl, a vast detention facility holding at least 24,000 suspected IS members from 42 countries, had been largely static. Kurdish prison guards suddenly disappeared and unfamiliar fighters appeared, claiming control as Syrian government forces swept through north-east Syria after a fragile ceasefire collapsed.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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