An estimated 10,000 foreigners from about 60 nationalities, including relatives of suspected Islamic State (IS) group militants, are held in the squalid and overcrowded camp in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria which also houses refugees.
The senior Iraqi security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "192 families, or 776 people" had returned to Iraq in the latest repatriation effort.
On Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported buses carrying Iraqi families had left Al-Hol, which is operated by the semi-autonomous Syrian Kurdish authorities.
Upon arrival in Iraq, authorities usually keep returnees from Al-Hol for weeks or even months at what officials describe as a "psychological rehabilitation" facility in Al-Jadaa, south of Mosul, where they also undergo security checks.
Iraq's official news agency INA, citing national security adviser Qassem al-Araji, said in early November that more than 1,500 Iraqi families had been transferred to Al-Jadaa.
Araji said that of that figure, some 900 families had been released and allowed to return home.
Repatriation of family members of suspected IS members has stirred controversy in Iraq, where the jihadist group had seized large swathes of land before being defeated in late 2017.
The repatriation process has faced resistance from local populations who don't want IS families among them.
Still, Baghdad regularly repatriates its citizens from Al-Hol, a policy commended by the United Nations as well as the United States.
Despite its territorial defeat, IS militants continue to conduct attacks against civilians and security forces in both Iraq and Syria.
Iraqi TV shows first video of kidnapped Israeli-Russian academic
Baghdad (AFP) Nov 13, 2023 -
An Iraqi network on Monday broadcast a video showing a captive Israeli-Russian academic, the first sign of life from Elizabeth Tsurkov since her abduction in Baghdad nearly nine months ago.
Israeli authorities revealed in July that Tsurkov had been kidnapped, blaming pro-Iranian militants after she had gone missing in Iraq in late March.
Al Rabiaa TV aired a video of Tsurkov, which was also shared on the Telegram channels of pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq, showing her wearing a black shirt and speaking to the camera in Hebrew over a little more than four minutes.
AFP was unable to independently verify the footage, and it was impossible to determine when and where the video was taken and whether she had been forced to speak.
Neither Tsurkov's family nor Israeli authorities have commented on the video.
Tsurkov mentions in her remarks the war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, which has been waging since attacks on October 7 by the Palestinian militant group.
She says she has been detained for more than seven months, without identifying her captors or the location where she is held.
A doctoral student at Princeton University and fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, Tsurkov says in the video she had worked for Israeli and US intelligence agencies in Syria and Iraq.
She also says there were no efforts towards freeing her.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in early July accused Iraq's powerful Kataeb Hezbollah of holding her, but the armed faction has implied it was not involved in her disappearance.
Tsurkov, who had likely entered Iraq on her Russian passport, had travelled to the country as part of her doctoral studies.
Later in July, the Iraqi government said it had launched an investigation concerning her disappearance, but has not announced any findings since.
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