ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – There are at least eight cases of proven Islamic State (ISIS) members being embedded in the ranks of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) according to Rami Abdulrahman, the chief of the UK-based watchdog organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
In a statement given to North Press Agency, a media organization with close ties to the Kurdish authorities in northern and eastern Syria, Abdulrahman said, “The Observatory has documented at least eight members of the Islamic State organization fighting alongside the Hamzat Divisions and Ahrar al-Sharqiyah, identified by citizens of Qalamoun, Eastern Ghouta, and the people of Hasaka province.”
“There is information that hundreds of members [of ISIS] are in the ranks of the [Syrian] National Army, but what we have confirmed so far is at least eight cases,” he added.
The moniker Syrian National Army refers not to the forces of the Assad government, which are known as the Syrian Arab Army, but to a bloc of Syrian groups backed by Turkey. In its latest incursion into Syrian territory, an operation called “Peace Spring” that started on October 9, Turkey used the SNA in the front lines against Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Both the Hamzat Divisions and Ahrar al-Sharqiyah (“Free Men of the East”) are among the ranks of the Syrian National Army participating in the Turkish offensive. These groups appear to have committed war crimes such as field executions of soldiers and civilians, including prominent Kurdish female politician Havrin Khalaf, and the desecration of dead SDF fighters’ bodies.
Operation Peace Spring is supposedly on hold since Turkey reached two separate ceasefire agreements, one with the US and the other with Russia, but heavy fighting between Turkish-aligned forces and the SDF has continued amidst allegations of ceasefire violations by both sides. Clashes around the predominantly Christian town of Tel Tamr continue, and Syrian government soldiers aligned with the SDF have pulled back after suffering many casualties.
Abdulrahman stated that the SOHR’s evidence of ISIS members in the SNA ranks, including the presence of a former Islamic State official in the Hamzat Divisions, is “absolute.” He slammed the US and the world for their silence about the issue of Turkey using ISIS members in its operations, claiming that most countries know ISIS members are embedded in the Turkish proxy forces, but sidestep the issue by claiming that they “consider them to be former members.”
SOHR on Sunday quoted a man who had been kidnapped and later released by the Hamzat Divisions as saying that the group contains ISIS members. The man, who had to pay a $60,000 ransom, claimed that he had to deal with ISIS members to be freed.
“Among the ranks of the Turkish-backed faction was a person who worked in the Faruq al-Islami faction, then became an Emir of an area referred to as Willayet al-Homs by the Islamic State organization,” SOHR quoted the source as saying.
“There are three Daesh Emirs, who were in ISIS for more than a year, among the members of the Hamzat Division,” the source went on to claim.
Kurdish forces themselves have accused the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army of furthering ISIS ideology, and have made forthright claims of ISIS personnel presence in their enemies’ ranks.
Hawar News Agency (ANHA), an SDF-affiliated media organization based in Belgium, confirmed these claims yesterday when they published the names, codenames and descriptions of 40 ISIS members – including the man who executed Havrin Khalaf – who are now fighting for the SNA in northern Syria.