IS women in al-Hol camp force teenage boys to impregnate them

"Islamic State" (IS) women living in al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria are forcing young teenage boys to have intercourse with them and impregnate them as part of a plan to raise the next generation of IS fighters, Kurdish officials tell Al-Mashareq.

Most of these women are widows of IS fighters, and some are IS elements themselves.

The women act in the interest of an alleged IS campaign to "Go Forth and Multiply", which aims to create a new generation of "cubs of the caliphate" to help the group make a comeback, the officials say.

Roshan Kobani, a member of the Women's Protection Units (YPJ) -- the all-female brigade of the People's Protection Units (YPG) -- said that despite intense security measures implemented at the camp, IS women still find ways to hide knives, phones and even newborn babies.

Although several sources inside the camp have confirmed the news about the "Go Forth and Multiply" campaign, no physical evidence of the new babies' existence has been found yet, she told Al-Mashareq.

"The babies are most likely being hidden in hideouts dug inside the tents."

The IS women are "ferocious" and are in constant communication with some of the group's leaders inside and outside the camp, as they are the group's hope for revival through reproduction, said Kobani.

They also brainwash children to turn them into "cubs of the caliphate", she said.

Not only are the camp's boys in danger, but also young girls raised by the IS women, she said, as they are raised to perform the same tasks when they grow up, including spreading the group's ideology and becoming tools for reproduction.

Training killers

In al-Hol and Roj camps -- Roj being the smaller of the two and housing foreign women and children -- men and women are completely separated. Young teenage boys are transferred to special sections after they reach puberty.

Azad Dudeki, a Kurdish Red Crescent official who works at the medical facility in al-Hol camp, said "it is very difficult to separate young male teens from women in al-Hol, as the women make the boys wear the niqab" to conceal their features.

By doing this, IS women can keep the boys in their own section of the camp "under the pretence that they are girls", he said, adding that "the boys are then exploited as sex tools for impregnation".

This exploitation is proven every once in a while, when a number of children appear in surveys of the camp's residents though their names are not on any list of resident names. The surveys are taken by retina scans and fingerprinting, said Dudeki.

These children harbour deep hatred for all camp staff, even medical, social and administrative workers, he said.

"Women from the camp have been caught training children on the use of knives and other sharp objects and how to play combat games, which means these children are being turned into killing machines and time bombs," he said.

'Cubs of the caliphate'

Adnan Azadi, an official with the security branch of the Asayesh (internal security) forces at al-Hol, said after IS's so-called "caliphate" fell apart and the group lost its military power, it now focuses on al-Hol camp to raise the next generation of fighters.

Women at the camp spread terrorist ideology and brainwash children to turn them into "cubs of the caliphate", thus forming a foundation through which the group can make a comeback, he said.

"This place is a literal breeding ground for the next generation of [IS]," Gen. Michael "Erik" Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command, said in a statement after having visited al-Hol last year.

It is not surprising that IS women are playing the inhuman role of exploiting children, said Azadi, as women were initially brought to IS-controlled areas "to reproduce and provide recreation for the fighters".

Women and marriage "were among the main tools the group used to attract youth from around the world" to Syria, he told Al-Mashareq.

Azadi warned that al-Hol is "a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment due to the large number of people inside it, and this concerns all countries that have citizens in the camp".

Ultimately, this will affect all countries because IS's extremist ideology affects everyone without exception, he said.