A forgotten camp in Syria could be the birthplace of ISIS' revenge generation

The market at al-Hol camp is a sea of unidentifiable figures clad in black, clutching their children's grubby hands as they drag them past those haggling their wares.

The camp's population rocketed from 9,000 to 70,000 after ISIS made its last stand in the Syrian town of Baghouz in March. Weeks of battle led to a large outflux of displaced people, mostly the families of ISIS fighters. They police women's allegiance to ISIS, punishing those suspected of wavering in their support for the extremist group.

A Pentagon report by the inspector general, released last month, warned that the US and its local allies have been unable to closely monitor movements inside al-Hol. A drawdown of the US military presence in the area has allowed"ISIS ideology to spread 'uncontested' in the camp," the report found.

Around 10,000 people in the camp are foreign nationals from elsewhere in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. Very few have been repatriated. Bringing them back to their home countries is not something politically popular in Europe and abroad.Women in the camp marketplace say their ultimate priority is securing the release of their detained husbands and teenage sons who are being held by the Syrian Democratic Forces.

"I came here to escape ISIS and now we are in a camp full of ISIS," he says."We can't talk to the ISIS people here. Even [as] we cut hair, they start telling us that we are infidels." In the same month, video posted on social media showed the black ISIS flag being raised in the Syrian section of the camp.

Othman says that ISIS held his family hostage in Raqqa, the former seat of their power, and coerced him to join their ranks. He was tasked with planting bombs in another town. Some of the detainees claim they were arbitrarily detained. Others say they are innocent but were turned in by family members who themselves were members of ISIS. Some, like Othman, admit to joining but claim they had little choice.Nearby, at the al-Houti Rehabilitation Center, scores of teenage boys are either serving ISIS-related sentences or have been identified as having radical tendencies.

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