Turkey repatriates five Moldovan nationals from Syria camp: Report

Turkey's intelligence agency has repatriated five Moldovan nationals from a detention camp run by the Kurdish YPG group in northeastern Syria, according to reports.  

The five Moldovan nationals, Natalia Barkal and her four young children, had been stranded since 2019 in Hasakah's al-Hol camp, where families of Islamic State (IS) foreign fighters are held, Turkey's state news agency Anadolu said on Friday. 

Turkish security officials told Anadolu that the repatriation operation was a joint venture between Turkey and Moldova and had been carried out at the request of Moldova.

Anadolu also reported that security sources said that Moldovan President Igor Dodon had thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the operation.

Barkal and her husband, who was of Syrian descent, left Moldova in 2013 to live in the Manbij district of Aleppo, which was later controlled by IS.

Turkish officials said that Barkal's husband was killed in 2017 during military clashes. Following the fall of IS, Barkal was taken to the al-Hol camp with her four children.

It remains unclear whether Barkal or her husband were members of the militant group.