The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

The SDF release more than 400 Syrian members of ISIS including commanders and more than 120 members of them join the SDF in Deir Ezzor

Civil fears of raging fighting among families or clans in Deir Ezzor and Al-Hasakah countryside in the wake of releasing former members of ISIS from prisons of the SDF

Villages and towns in the Syria Democratic Forces-held areas in the eastern and the north-western countryside of Deir Ezzor as well as the southern countryside of Al-Hasakah, are witnessing tension accompanied by skirmishes between residents in these areas against former members in the “Islamic State” organization, and in the details obtained by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights from a number of reliable sources; the SDF released more than 400 members of the organization of Syrian nationalities, who come from Deir Ezzor and Al-Hasakah countryside, in which these members returned to the villages which they come from, after they were arrested for weeks to question them, after members of the organization intended to surrender to the SDF in the contact areas between them, the last of which was the surrender of more than 40 members of ISIS to the forces of “Al-Jazeera Storm” Operation, in late 2017, during the violent fighting which took place in the east of the Euphrates River, in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, where they were carried by vehicles of the SDF towards areas in the northern countryside of Deir Ezzor, and the vehicles were watched while they were carrying them towards Al-Hasakah province through the north of Deir Ezzor.

The reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the tension took place between residents of the eastern and the northern countryside of Deir Ezzor, against the members of the organization returning to their villages, in which several areas in Deir Ezzor countryside witnessed attacks by the residents on the members of the organization returning to their villages, and in some occasions, skirmishes by light weapons took place between citizens against the released members, and citizens asserted to the Syrian Observatory that the SDF kept themselves away these skirmishes amid fears by the residents of turning these skirmishes and tension into clan conflict or fighting among families or clans in the area, as a result of committing previous crimes and aggressions by the released members of the organization, during the period when ISIS controlled Deir Ezzor countryside, and the desire of families to revenge for the killing, insults and aggressions against their sons, during the control of ISIS on most of Deir Ezzor countryside.

And the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also learned that the released members include tens of important commanders in Deir Ezzor countryside, as well as security and military officials, economists and Sharia men of the organization, some of them of the dissidents from the  regime forces in previous years who joined the organization later, while the SOHR monitored that more than 120 members of them have joined the SDF, most of them are people of clans include commanders in the SDF in Deir Ezzor and Al-Hasakah countryside, while residents expressed their fears of that the members of the organization have surrender as a preliminary step to form sleeper cells in the SDF-held areas, and carry out explosions and assassinations which may kill citizens and members of the SDF, as several areas controlled by the SDF deep in their held areas in Deir Ezzor countryside, witnessed attacks by booby trapped vehicles and light weapons which left tens of casualties and wounded.