MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. A hotbed of jihadism has emerged in northeastern Syria in the vicinity of US troops, in an area that the West describes as "an island of safety," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.
"When the talk is about a ‘prosperous’ region of Syria controlled by US-backed forces, they usually paint a rosy picture, where the country’s northeast is kind of ‘an island of safety.’ In fact, a real jihadist hotbed has emerged in close proximity to US troops, from where radical militants escape regularly to unleash chaos and death on the country and beyond," she emphasized.
The diplomat pointed to a Wall Street Journal publication that "contains some shocking details of how temporarily displaced persons live in Syria’s Al-Hol camp controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces".
"According to the news outlet’s reporters, jihadists manage almost all areas of life in the camp. There are tough rules, for instance, people may get killed for dancing, over 40 people have been executed since the beginning of the year, with ten of them beheaded. Militants' wives and widows residing in the camp have become couriers, who help spread radical Islamist ideas. They seek to establish contact with the clandestine network of the Islamic State terror group [outlawed in Russia] and educate the young generation. The Syrian Democratic Forces are doing nearly nothing to combat these dangerous trends and murders, and radical propaganda goes on despite arrests and attempts to detain extremists," Zakharova stressed.