CNN team has filmed a big story about life in Syria after crushing of ISIS terror group, which is banned in Tajikistan. In one of rehabilitation camps, they have revealed a 15-year-old Tajik teen, whose parents were killed while fighting alongside ISIS militants.
According to journalists, the 15-year-old teen also fought alongside ISIS militants. He tells how he got the bomb, weapons and “shahid belt” (explosive belt) and planned an explosion at the U.S. base.
A 7-minute report that was prepared as part of the Project “Go There” was posted on Facebook.
CNN notes that Al-Hol is a sprawling encampment for those displaced from the former ISIS territory in northeastern Syria, and as living conditions worsen, nostalgia for ISIS’ rule is beginning to brew. CNN journalist went inside to see how families of ISIS members, shunned by the international community, are trying to bring their fundamentalist utopia back to life.
About 15% of the inhabitants there are foreigners, but the international community has for months neglected the camp, according to CNN. And as living conditions worsen, nostalgia for ISIS' rule is reportedly beginning to brew.
The camp's population rocketed from 9,000 to 70,000 after ISIS made its last stand in the Syrian town of Baghouz in March. Weeks of battle led to a large outflux of displaced people, mostly the families of ISIS fighters.
Around 50,000 of the camp's inhabitants are children, and most of the rest are women. They are the ones who held out in the rapidly shrinking so-called caliphate until the very end.
And while some of the mothers have tried desperately to find a way out of the camp, many are trying to bring their fundamentalist utopia back to life.
Beneath a cloak of secrecy, the radical women inhabitants have continued to enforce the draconian laws of the former so-called caliphate. They police women's allegiance to ISIS, punishing those suspected of wavering in their support for the extremist group.
Adherence to fundamentalist dress codes is closely supervised with sometimes lethal punishment meted out to those who fall out of line.
Growing extremism in al-Hol reportedly runs parallel to signs of ISIS' resurgence elsewhere in the region. The place is a toxic blend of those intent on incubating ISIS' ideology and those who want to leave their past behind.
A glaring lack of international involvement and neglect has allowed extremism to thrive.
Around 10,000 people in the camp are foreign nationals from elsewhere in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. Very few have been repatriated.
