Turkey helps Moldovan family escape Islamic State camp in Syria
The woman and her family had been living in al-Hol since 2019, but their exact connection to IS is unclear.
Turkey has reportedly “rescued” a Moldovan woman and her four children from the al-Hol camp for Islamic State (IS) families in Syria.
Natalia Barkal arrived in al-Hol in 2019, but returned home Friday with the help of Turkish and Moldovan intelligence, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Barkal’s husband, who was of Syrian origin, lived in Moldova until 2013. The two eventually came from the eastern European country to live in Manbij in northeast Syria. The husband was killed in 2017, according to Anadolu. The news outlet did not provide details on how Barkal came to reside in al-Hol, the family's exact timeline in Syria, or her husband’s affiliations. The Moldovan news site tv8 also reported on the repatriation, describing it as a joint effort by Moldovan and Turkish intelligence.
Al-Hol is administered by the Kurdish-led autonomous administration of north and east Syria. The administration has repeatedly called on countries to take back their citizens in the camp, but repatriations have thus far been limited. The 65,000 people in the camp live in poor conditions and have varying degrees of allegiance to IS. Most al-Hol residents are women and children from Iraq and Syria, but there are thousands of foreign women and children as well.
