With the Islamic State’s physical caliphate destroyed, the next challenge for many countries is what to do with hundreds of children of IS militants stranded in Kurdish-held refugee camps of northeastern Syria. Those born to IS foreign fighters and Syrian mothers face the most uncertain future of all, according to local rights activists and experts. 

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the final victory over IS in March after weeks of clashes in the eastern Syrian town of Baghuz. 

The operation brought many thousands of people to a makeshift refugee camp called al-Hol, consisting of fleeing civilians, arrested IS fighters and their family members. 

The camp managers are holding 10,000 women and children with ties to IS foreign fighters in a separate area of the camp, with children under 12 accounting for about 65% of this group, according to the International Committee for the Red Cross.

Hannah Grigg, a researcher at the Syria Justice and Accountability Center, told VOA those in the group who are born to IS foreign fighters and Syrian mothers could end up stateless as it remains uncertain which parent’s nationality each can obtain.

“That is a huge challenge going forward for these children added to the social stigma because they are associated with IS,” Grigg said. 

She noted that many of these children do not have strong claims to citizenship in their patriarchs’ home countries. Similarly, Syrian nationality laws do not allow citizenship claims based on mother’s nationality. 

Even if the Syrian state amends its rules to grant them citizenship, Grigg argued, many of the children are carrying their fathers’ physical features, making them stand out as foreigners with little hope of making their way into the society. 

Grass-roots campaigns 

Many activists in Syria are organizing initiatives to face this problem among many other issues left behind by IS. 

One of the campaigns — “Who is Your Husband?” — is trying to help reintegrate the Syrian women and children born to IS foreign fighters to the society by helping educate communities. 

The group, based in the northwestern governorate of Idlib, has documented more than 1,700 women married to foreign fighters, who joined IS or al-Qaida-aligned militants. It vows to continue its efforts, despite threats from the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group.

Naseeb Abdul Aziz, the manager of the campaign, told VOA his team also is investigating the reasons that pushed Syrian women to marry the foreign fighters — sometimes despite their families’ strong objections. They also work on raising women’s awareness about the perils of such marriages and the consequences for their children.

“Many of these foreign fighters either fled or were killed without knowing their real identities, leaving these women and children to deal with their families, societies and fate,” said Aziz.

“These children remain without any civil rights. They will be deprived from their rights of having an identity, going to school and finding a job,” he said, adding that will be just one dimension of the difficult challenges facing Syria in the future. 

In addition, Aziz pointed to dealing with undocumented marriages and unregistered children, along with the deradicalization of women and children brainwashed by extremist ideology.

Pressure on camps

Officials in the Kurdish-controlled northeast region say an immediate solution for the detained IS relatives is necessary, particularly for the children who are facing diseases caused by poor living  conditions. 

WATCH: Thousands of Children Face Peril in Syrian Camps

Recent figures by the United Nations show that since December 2018, 211 children have died at the al-Hol camp or en route to it because of malnutrition or illness.

Samar Hussein, the co-chair of the Social Affairs and Labor Office of the Kurdish self-proclaimed administration in northeastern Syria, said many children and their mothers at the camp are sleeping in the open air without enough food or water. He pledged to seek international assistance to address the humanitarian needs of the refugees and their ultimate evacuation.

“We are in the process of discussing their fate with the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the self-autonomous region and also with the international coalition,” Hussein told VOA. 

Both the U.N. and the U.S. government have repeatedly asked that other governments take responsibility for repatriating IS foreign fighters — estimated to be 1,000 jihadists from more than 40 countries, along with their relatives.

Many countries remain reluctant to take them back, however, citing the difficulty of prosecuting the suspected fighters because of the hurdles involved in gathering battlefield evidence. 
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The assault on Tripoli launched April 4 by Libya’s would-be strongman Khalifa Haftar, a Gadhafi-era general, and his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) appeared Friday to be flagging, with his forces withdrawing from some of the capital’s southern suburbs amid heavy clashes.

Leaders of the country’s beleaguered, internationally recognized government are dismissing a behind-the-scenes effort by the U.N. special envoy, Ghassan Salame, for a cease-fire, suggesting they are more confident now of retaining their hold on the Libyan capital. 

​”It felt like thunder was going to split my house,” Libyan-American Holima El Haj, a mother of two, told VOA by phone. “I was crying, and I don’t normally do that.”

Muhanad Younis, the spokesman for the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), told reporters there’s no question of a cease-fire. He said Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj was determined to thwart the assault on the capital led by Haftar, who’s allied with a rival government in the east of the North African country. 

There will be “no negotiations or dialogue until after defeating the aggressors,” al-Serraj said.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told reporters in New York that there’s “grave concern” about “the indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in Tripoli” and urged all parties to protect civilians. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 39,000 people have been displaced by the clashes.

Much of the fighting now, according to government military officials who discussed the flow and ebb of the battles, has been focusing on the suburb of Ain Zara in southern Tripoli. There have also been reports of fierce fighting around Wadi Rabea and Tripoli International Airport.

GNA officials say Tripoli forces have been gaining ground and threaten to cut off LNA supply lines running from Gharian, a town 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Tripoli, which is serving as the LNA’s forward headquarters for the assault on Tripoli.

“We won’t agree to a cease-fire,” Abdulraham El Mansouri, an adviser to the GNA, told VOA. “If we agree to one, Haftar will only use the time to regroup his forces, and we won’t allow that.” 

He said the forces loyal to the GNA, which are made up mainly of an assortment of fighters drawn from the powerful and battle-hardened militias of Tripoli and Misrata, won’t stop fighting during the holy month of Ramadan, due to start on the evening May 5. “We won’t stop until we have driven Haftar all the way back to Benghazi and Tobruk, and we’ll finish him there.”

Some independent analysts agree that Tripoli now may be beyond Haftar. His forces are “dangerously stretched,” said Federica Saini Fasanotti, an analyst with the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. She said LNA soldiers captured by forces loyal to the Tripoli government “are very young and clearly not up to the task.” 

Many of the fighters the LNA is battling are veterans of the 2011 uprising against Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Haftar’s forces are also drawn from less cohesive groups, including mercenaries from Chad and Sudan. The edge Haftar does have, say analysts, is in the backing he’s receiving from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in terms of supplies, which appear to include armed drones.

“Haftar definitely overestimated his strength and underestimated his adversary,” said Karim Mezran, an analyst with the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. His offensive prompted the country’s most powerful western militias from Tripoli, Misrata and Zintan — frequently at odds with each other in the past — to join forces in support of al-Serraj, he said.

But Mezran and other analysts say the GNA forces are probably incapable of capturing the LNA loyalist cities of Benghazi and Tobruk if Haftar is forced to withdraw from around Tripoli. 

“The United States, so far, along with Italy and Britain, has had a very straightforward position: There is no military solution possible in Libya, only a U.N.-backed negotiations process,” said Mezran.

Last week, it emerged that U.S. President Donald Trump might be considering reversing Washington’s position. In a phone call with Haftar, the U.S. leader praised the general for his fight against the Islamic State and other jihadists. Bloomberg News reported Trump told Haftar he supported an attack on Tripoli. 

But State Department officials told VOA that U.S. policy remains the same: Only a negotiated settlement can end conflict in Libya. 

The U.N.’s special envoy to Libya, Salame, told reporters in Rome on Friday that he was exploring ways “to convince the parties to the conflict to stop fighting and resume the political process.”

He added: “The U.N. continues its role in Libya. We have been providing assistance to thousands of families affected by the fighting to be relocated to safer areas. … The mission continues efforts to bring together the various parties in hope that they can recognize, before Ramadan, that it is better to stick to the political process than further fighting where there is no winner while the country is losing.”
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