There is little escape from the heat and limited access to running water. The site reached 98 degrees while we were out here today, and it gets much hotter. With approximately 56,000 residents – more than 90 percent of them women and children – living in tents here, the camp is a flashpoint of human suffering. I spoke with several members from the camp today these discussions reinforced the severity of the situation. While this camp represents a real threat to the region, it also represents a humanitarian catastrophe. Working together on al-Hol is an extension of our ongoing cooperation to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS. We continue working with the SDF to address both security at the camp as well as the humanitarian conditions. It is therefore urgent that we repatriate residents back to their countries of origin and rehabilitate them if needed. Most of the residents seek to escape ISIS, but ISIS sees the camp as a captive audience for its message and recruitment efforts. We’ve already seen ISIS members holding women and girls enslaved in chains inside the camp, torturing camp residents, and seeking to spread their vile ideology. This is a critical, wide-ranging operation which will make the camp safer for all residents. The SDF mission to clear ISIS from the camp continues. The SDF face danger in their effort to clear ISIS from this site and our thoughts are with their fellow SDF troops. I expressed this directly to the leadership of the Syrian Democratic Forces at the camp. Central Command sends its condolences to the families of the two members of the Syrian Democratic Forces killed in a firefight with ISIS in the al-Hol camp on September 8th.
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