Detailed information about a battalion comprised of dozens of Iraqi ISIS elements operating in Syria has been provided by reliable sources to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The battalion, which is headquartered in Syria’s al-Bab and consists of nearly 40 Iraqi members, operates under the Ahrar al-Sharqiyah faction and works for Turkish intelligence.
According to the sources, it is tasked with carrying out assassinations and bombings and spying on foreign ISIS members, who attempt to flee to Turkish territory and are hiding in the Aleppo countryside, before later imprisoning them. Some have been killed, while others were taken to Turkey in return for large sums of money.
A deal was also reached to send some jailed members to Libya to fight alongside the Turkish-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, the sources told the Observatory.
The battalion operates a notorious prison in al-Bab and is led by Abu Waqqas al-Iraqi, who moves freely between Turkey and Aleppo’s eastern countryside.
“Abu Waqqas travels comfortably between Turkey and Aleppo countryside, and he appeared in a picture taken in the Turkish province of Sanlıurfa documenting his meeting with ISIS Commander Abu Osama al-Tayanah,” said the sources.
They pointed out that Abu Waqqas has been laying low for nearly two months now. It it is not yet known whether he had traveled to Libya to fight for the GNA or headed to Egypt with large sums of money in his possession, as Abu Hudhayfah al-Hamawi did.
Abu Hudhayfah, a former commander of the Ahrar Al-Sham, had fled to Egypt after stealing large sums of money from the then newly-founded Ahrar al-Sharqiyah faction.
“The Iraqi battalion has recently transferred inmates from its prison in al-Bab to Idlib city, where they were received by Abu Ali al-Iraqi, a commander in Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham,” revealed the sources.
Among the transferees are Tunisians Belal al-Shawashi and Abu Al-Waleed, Iraqi national, Abu Usama, and Egyptians, all of whom were ISIS commanders.
Sources said the Iraqi battalion buries its victims in a mass grave on the outskirts of Susanbat village along the al-Bab and al-Ra’i road in Aleppo’s northeastern countryside. It has killed nearly 300 civilians, military members and ISIS fighters and buried them in its mass grave, the Observatory was told.
