How did Daesh benefit from the Turkish invasion in northern Syria?

Moaz Mohamed

Turkey’s military operation “Peace Spring” in northern Syria, which began since 9 October 2019, has caused many casualties on both sides, Ankara and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but a third party has benefited greatly. This operation has formed a new beginning for the terrorist Daesh organization.

In this regard, a research by the European Center for Combating Terrorism, issued on Saturday 19 October 2019, titled: «How Daesh benefited from the military operations by the Turkish army in northern Syria?», revealed the gains made by the organization from Ankara’s intervention in Syria to establish the so-called «safe zone».

According to the report, Operation Spring of Peace coincided with the call of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an audio message on September 16, 2019, that he will save his fighters and their families held in prisons and camps, vowing to avenge them.

The report pointed out that the Turkish army bombed the perimeter of a prison where the most dangerous elements of Daesh are held.

YPG had confiscated many passports from ISIS members in operations in Baghouz and other locations. Prominent German news journal Der Spiegel and Spiegel TV inspected the passports and published a special story.

Der Spiegel looked into over 100 passports from 21 countries and stressed that all the passports have Turkish entry stamps.

The journal said Turkey has been an important transit country for ISIS members and added that the passports were from Germany, Rusia, Indonesia and Tunisia, as well as Trinidad and Tobago, South Africa and Slovenia.

The report said that the suspicious relations between Turkey and Daesh went to maintain the organization representation in Ankara, which helps him continue to receive foreign militants, and facilitate their passage to the border areas with Syria.

The Center’s report stressed that the Turkish authorities have condoned the sale of Daesh smuggled oil to Turkish buyers, confirming that Ankara is financing the terrorist organization to destroy the region.

Paul Van Tigchelt, head of Belgium’s terror threat analysis center, told a parliamentary committee that two men and three women, either Belgian or with links to Belgium, were no longer in prison in a camp where they had been held under Kurdish control since the defeat of ISIS by US-backed coalition forces in 2017.

In Paris, on Friday evening, the French judiciary tried seven detainees on charges of financing terrorism and raising money to send to ISIS detainees in Syria to help them escape.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian affirmed that nine French women have escaped from a Kurdish-controlled camp in northwestern Syria.

Several French women who had travelled to Syria to join Daesh and were captured when the extremists suffered military defeat left a camp for the displaced in northeast Syria at the weekend, at the start of the Turkish offensive.

“With the collapse of Daaesh and the attitude of Turkey against the Kurds, the resurgence of attacks in France is being planned,” Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, warned Tuesday. “Jihadists like Adrien Guihal who took up arms against France are destined to reorganize themselves and begin again.”

Guihal, whose nom de guerre is Abu Oussama al-Faransi had claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist operations.

French terrorism expert Jean-Charles Brisard told The Daily Beast that the situation in Syria was “anarchy” and there was no actual confirmation of Guihal’s escape yet.

However, Brisard also told the Nice-Matin newspaper that he spotted an encrypted email used by someone familiar with Guihal that indicated “five brothers” had escaped from the Kurdish-held Qamishli prison and one of them was “Abu Oussama al-Faransi,” Guihal’s alias.

Turkey and the US announced October 17 that they brokered a 120-hour cease-fire following a meeting between U.S. Vice President Mike Pence with Erdogan, however, the SDF revealed on October 19 that Ankara has been relying on Daesh fighters who fled prisons, to execute military operations against locations and cities east of the Euphrates, to preach the cease-fire.