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Database: Former Isis Members Now Part of Turkish-Backed Forces in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad October 2020

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Database: Former Isis Members Now Part of Turkish-Backed Forces in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad October 2020 DATABASE: FORMER ISIS MEMBERS NOW PART OF TURKISH-BACKED FORCES IN SERE KANIYE AND TEL ABYAD OCTOBER 2020 DATABASE: FORMER ISIS MEMBERS NOW PART OF TURKISH-BACKED FORCES IN SERE KANIYE AND TEL ABYAD 9 OCTOBER 2020 1 DATABASE: FORMER ISIS MEMBERS NOW PART OF TURKISH-BACKED FORCES IN SERE KANIYE AND TEL ABYAD OCTOBER 2020 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION (P. 3) 2 METHODOLOGY (P. 5) 3 TACIT TURKISH SUPPORT FOR ISIS (P. 6) 3.1 SHELTERING ISIS (P. 7) 4 THE SYRIAN NATIONAL ARMY (P. 8) 4.1 TURKISH CULPABILITY: COMMAND AND CONTROL OF SNA (P. 8) 4.2 ABUSES AND WAR CRIMES COMMITTED BY THE SNA (P. 9) 4.3 COMPARING ISIS AND THE SNA (P. 10) 5 DATABASE (P. 15) FORMER ISIS MEMBERS NOW PART OF TURKISH-BACKED FORCES IN SERE KANIYE AND TEL ABYAD 2 DATABASE: FORMER ISIS MEMBERS NOW PART OF TURKISH-BACKED FORCES IN SERE KANIYE AND TEL ABYAD OCTOBER 2020 1 INTRODUCTION Turkey justified its 2019 invasion of North and East Syria (NES) with anti-terror rhetoric, claiming that the presence of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on its southern border constituted an existential threat to the Turkish state. In fact, it was Turkish forces that launched over 30 cross-border attacks against NES from January 2019 up to the invasion in October.1 While these Turkish attacks killed and injured scores of civilians, primarily farmers and shepherds tending land near the border, Turkey itself experienced only one cross-border attack from NES in the same time period, with the perpetrator captured by SDF. Turkey’s bad faith anti-terror rhetoric did not convince the international community, with all major international powers and bodies condemning the invasion. Nonetheless, the US-led International Coalition to Defeat ISIS withdrew their small border garrisons on orders from US President Donald Trump. Around 200 civilians were killed, and 200,000 displaced, as Turkey launched a wave of airstrikes and seized control of two border cit- ies, Sere Kaniye (also known as Ras al-Ayn) and Tel Abyad (also known as Gire Spi). Turkey relied on its air superiority to drive back the SDF, backed by a ground assault led by the Syrian National Army (SNA), a Turkish-controlled, commanded and funded entity comprising scores of primarily Sunni Arab and Turkmen militias. The same tactics were deployed in Turkey’s January 2018 invasion and occupation of Afrin. This isolated region was formerly almost entirely populated by Kurds, but the majority of this population has been driven out as part of an ongoing process of forcible demographic change. The region is being repopulated by Sunni Arab militiamen and their families, transferred by Turkey into the homes of displaced Kurds, Yezidis, Alevis and Christians, in a process which is now being repeated in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) is generally recog- nized as providing the highest levels of religious and ethnic tolerance, human rights and respect for rule of law of any actor in Syria. Since their occupation, Afrin, Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad have moved from a situation of relative peace, secularism and prosperity to one in which Turkish-controlled armed groups commit a wide range of war crimes against the civilian population, including raping women, torture, summary executions, kidnapping for ransom, extortion, forcibly confining women to the home, and in some instances the imposition of a strict interpretation of Sharia law (see section 4 below). 1 https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2019/08/ database-over-30-turkish-cross-border-attacks-against-rojava-in-2019-only-1-attack-targets-turkey/ 3 DATABASE: FORMER ISIS MEMBERS NOW PART OF TURKISH-BACKED FORCES IN SERE KANIYE AND TEL ABYAD OCTOBER 2020 Far from acting to combat terror, then, Turkey’s invasions and installation of the SNA in regions formerly controlled by SNA have provided safe havens for globally-wanted terrorists. US airstrikes regularly target top-level militants linked to al-Qaeda or ISIS, moving freely in Turkish-controlled territory. In 2019, Rojava Information Center published a widely-covered report identifying over 40 former ISIS members now part of Turkish-backed forces in Afrin. They include former emirs, commanders and those responsible for coordinating jihadist fighters with their handlers in the Turkish military intelligence services (MIT).2 The present report expands on this work. Applying a more stringent methodology, it identifies over 40 former ISIS members now safely sheltered as part of Turkish-con- trolled factions in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad, many for the first time. Along with pre- vious RIC reports addressing the dire humanitarian situation in the occupied areas, it constitutes further evidence that Turkey is acting as a state sponsor of terror. Though formally a member of the International Coalition Against ISIS, in practice Tur- key has launched two destructive operations against the force which led the struggle to defeat ISIS as a territorial entity, while simultaneously offering shelter, wages and support to ISIS elements. Turkey’s actions in NES grant ISIS elements the opportunity to re-group, re-organise, and continue to impose a radical Islamic ideology on the local population. Turkey’s brazen sheltering of former ISIS elements will have grave security outcomes for Europe, the USA and the international community. 2 https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2019/08/ database-over-40-former-isis-members-now-part-of-turkish-backed-forces/ 3 https://rojavainformationcenter.com/2020/05/six-months-on-political-security-and-humanitarian-out- 4 comes-of-turkeys-2019-invasion-of-north-and-east-syria/ DATABASE: FORMER ISIS MEMBERS NOW PART OF TURKISH-BACKED FORCES IN SERE KANIYE AND TEL ABYAD OCTOBER 2020 2 METHODOLOGY Local press and regional monitors have been documenting the presence of ISIS ele- ments in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad since the first days of the Turkish invasion. Most notably, a widely-circulated list published by the Violations Documentation Center of Northern Syria (VDC-SNY), among others, identified around 80 former ISIS and al-Qaeda members now part of SNA militias in the two occupied cities. For the present report, RIC has only included cases where the identity of the former ISIS member has been confirmed by two or more separate sources. Some – such as Faysal Belo and the al-Aqal family – are prominent ISIS figures whose presence in the Turk- ish-controlled region has been repeatedly covered by regional monitors. The majority of individuals in the list were identified by two local interlocutors, while in some instances the identity and background of individuals on the VDC-SNY list was confirmed to RIC by a single local interlocutor. Minor biographical information has been included on the basis of a single source. Our local interlocutors are local journalists and activists from the cities occupied by Tur- key in 2019, or else from other cities in NES where ISIS have been able to recruit mem- bers. They include activists who were involved with Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions in Tel Abyad in the beginning of the Syrian revolution before moving to AANES areas as the FSA grew increasingly radicalized, and activists who lived under ISIS in Raqqa. This means the list as published here is dominated by individuals originating from Tel Abyad or other regions of NES, primarily Deir-ez-Zor and Raqqa. It is therefore likely that there are many more former ISIS members present in Tel Abyad and Sere Kaniye, origi- nating from other regions of Syria or further abroad, but whose identities could not be confirmed by the present investigation. Likewise, we were able to verify the identities of over 50% of those individuals from the VDC-SNY list who originate from the regions now under AANES control, suggesting that much of the information on that list concerning individuals from other regions of Syria is also likely to be broadly accurate – though the VDC-SNY list does also contain some clear errors. The present report is thus the most accurate record to date of former ISIS members now present in the newly-occupied region as part of the Turkish-controlled SNA. 5 DATABASE: FORMER ISIS MEMBERS NOW PART OF TURKISH-BACKED FORCES IN SERE KANIYE AND TEL ABYAD OCTOBER 2020 3 TACIT TURKISH SUPPORT FOR ISIS “When I look at Turkey they are fighting against those who fought with us shoulder to shoulder against ISIS (Islamic State) and sometimes they work with ISIS proxies,”4 French President Emmanuelle Macron said in December 2019 following Turkey’s latest opera- tion against the SDF. The French President’s accusations have been frequently substantiated by Western journalists, analysts and intelligence reports. While simultaneously facing multiple ISIS bombing attacks on its own territory, and conducting limited anti-ISIS operations in Syr- ia, Turkey has strategically manipulated the ISIS threat to its own ends, pursuing a viru- lent anti-Kurdish policy in Syria even at the expense of strengthening the terror group’s hand. A full survey of the Turkish government’s record in aiding and abetting ISIS – by omission and in some cases by commission – is beyond the scope of this report. Testimony sub- mitted to the US Congress draws together evidence of “military cooperation and weap- ons transfers [through to] logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of medical services,” citing research from scores of sources, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, BBC, Sky News, as well as Turkish sources such as CNN Turk, Hurriyet Daily News, Taraf, Cumhuriyet, and Radikal.5 Multiple reports indicate Turkey allowed ISIS fighters to cross into its territory to launch attacks against Kurdish positions during ISIS assaults on the cities of Kobane and Tel Abyad: purchased oil from ISIS via middlemen: allowed ISIS fighters to travel into its territory for medical care: and transferred lorries of arms into Islamist-held territory and ultimately into ISIS’ hands, disguised as humanitarian aid.6/7/8/9/10/11/12 Similar reports have been repeated to RIC by ISIS members in SDF captivity during multiple interviews conducted throughout 2019 and 2020.
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