Six killed by ISIS in Syria's notorious Al Hol camp this month

The camp houses about 62,000 displaced persons, including relatives of ISIS fighters

A fully veiled woman at the Kurdish-run Al Hol camp, which holds relatives of suspected ISIS group fighters in the north-eastern Hasakeh governorate. AFP

Six people, including four women, have been killed in Syria's Al Hol camp for displaced persons by ISIS in December, a British-based war monitor group said on Sunday.

The camp, which is controlled by the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in north-eastern Syria, houses about 62,000 displaced persons, including relatives of ISIS fighters.

About 93 per cent are women and children, and about half come from Iraq.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a wide network of sources in Syria, “six assassinations were committed” in the camp by terrorist cells since the start of December.

The last victim to date was shot dead on Saturday.

The victims include three Iraqis — two men and one woman — as well as two Syrian women and one woman whose identity is unknown, the observatory said.

Since the start of the year, the number of killings in the camp has been rising.

About 86 people have been killed, including 63 Iraqi refugees who resided in Al-Hol, according to the monitor's toll.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman warned that “chaos and insecurity persist within the camp”, calling it a “ticking time bomb” in comments to AFP.

In March, Kurdish-led authorities launched a major operation in the camp, during which they arrested 125 alleged ISIS members.

The UN has repeatedly warned of the deteriorating security conditions in Al Hol, where there have been breakout attempts in recent months.

Since the fall of ISIS's self-styled “caliphate” in March 2019, Syria's Kurds and the UN have repeatedly urged foreign countries to repatriate their citizens held in north-east Syria.

But most Western countries have refused to repatriate their citizens from the camp.

Calls by the Kurdish administration for the formation of international tribunals for the fighters have also been overlooked.