Beirut - (AFP) - The Kurdish self-administration region in Syria handed over to Iraq more than 600 relatives of suspected jihadist fighters who were being held in al-Hol camp, according to what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a Kurdish security source said Tuesday.

"The Iraqi government has transferred 161 families, including 659 people, from Al-Hol camp to Iraq," the Observatory reported.
According to the Observatory, these Iraqi families left Al-Hol camp in the countryside of Al-Hasakah towards their country, in coordination between the Baghdad government and the Kurdish "Autonomous Administration".

Al-Hol camp is located less than ten kilometers from the Iraqi border.

A security source in the Autonomous Administration told AFP on condition of anonymity, "Today... Iraqi families left... 634 people crossed through the Al-Faw crossing."

Al-Hol camp houses about 56,000 people, and it is the largest among a number of camps established in northeastern Syria, where relatives of suspected jihadist fighters are held, most of whom are women and children.

The United Nations reported more than 100 killings in the camp in 18 months.

Last month, the Kurdish security forces announced the arrest of more than 220 people as a result of a three-week security operation against groups affiliated with the Islamic State in the overcrowded al-Hol camp.

In a statement, the Kurdish forces (Asayish) stated that the security operation had "completed" with the arrest of "226 people, including 36 extremist women, who participated in the killings and intimidation" that the camp witnessed in recent months.

It said it found "25 trenches and tunnels" and confiscated weapons, torture tools and communications equipment.

The Kurdish authorities appeal to countries to recover their nationals and "not leave them vulnerable to exploitation and recruitment" by the organization.

Despite repeated calls and warnings by international organizations of "catastrophic" conditions, especially in Al-Hol camp, most countries refuse to take back their citizens. Nor did it respond to the Autonomous Administration's call for the establishment of an international tribunal to try the jihadists in its prisons.

Earlier this year, the Iraqi News Agency quoted the spokesman for the Ministry of Migration and Displacement, Ali Abbas Jahangir, as saying that "500 families were scheduled to be transferred from Al-Hol camp this year" in batches.