The Islamic State (ISIS) has almost total control of a massive camp in Syria, according to a new report, with Sharia Law being enforced within the camp's walls and even executions taking place.
Josh Rogin of The Washington Post reported that of the several internally displaced persons (IDP) camps that dot the Syrian landscape, ISIS is active in the largest one, called al-Hol.
Sitting near the far northeastern corner of Syria and not far from the country's border with Iraq, al-Hol has about 70,000 people who were displaced from the fighting in Syria as coalition forces battled ISIS in recent years. Rogin reported that several factors, including the relatively small amount of guards keeping order at the camp, have led to an ISIS takeover.
"The IDP camp al-Hol is quickly becoming a mini-caliphate and a fertile recruiting ground for ISIS," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told the Post. "The security footprint around the camp is incredibly weak, and the camp is being run by ISIS types under our very nose."
The Trump administration said last year that ISIS had been defeated and its caliphate, once based in Syria, was destroyed. Warning signs are now showing that another caliphate, possibly based in the al-Hol camp, could be forming.
"If the president wants to be successful in countering ISIS, he's got to swallow the hard reality of what's necessary and commit a lot more. And his officials have to find the courage to raise this with him and with the public," Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute told the Post. "The stakes now are so high, we can't continue to whisper about the realities of how bad things are."
European nations are refusing to allow nearly 1,000 ISIS fighters back into their countries even though they were once residents, which has resulted in them being imprisoned in Syria and Iraq. In many cases, the families of those fighters are not welcome back to their countries of origin either, so they are being housed in the IDP camps.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.