A week after one of the top U.S. generals paid a controversial visit to northern Syria "to meet with (American) commanders and troops," another senior U.S. security official, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), visited northeast Syria and met with U.S. forces and PKK leaders on Thursday.

In a written statement released on Saturday, CENTCOM said Kurilla visited U.S. forces and PKK fighters in the "daily fight against ISIS At Large," using an alternative acronym for the Daesh terrorist group. "This was his sixth visit to Syria in the last 11 months," the statement said.

Earlier on March 4, U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an unannounced visit to a U.S. base in the area dominated by the YPG, a Syrian wing of the designated terrorist group PKK. Milley’s visit stirred up a crisis between Türkiye and its NATO ally, the U.S., as the PKK and its associated elements in the region have claimed responsibility for thousands of civilian deaths in Türkiye. The crisis grew so large that Ankara summoned U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Jeff Flake over the controversial visit.

In the latest statement, CENTCOM reiterated once again the U.S. approach toward the PKK/YPG as it defined the terrorist group as "the U.S. partner force" in the region, where they claim to cooperatively conduct "daily missions" against Daesh.

The U.S. approach toward the bloody group continues to be a key obstacle to fully restoring relations between Ankara and Washington.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, speaking to Anadolu Agency's (AA) Editors' Desk, which gathered in Türkiye's quake-hit southern Hatay province on Sunday, once again underlined Ankara's position toward the PKK-YPG organic ties. "The YPG is the same as the PKK terrorist organization. We expect our friends, allies to stop resisting and see, understand truth," he said.

Kurilla "held discussions with leaders and analysts on the current threat posed by the group (Daesh) as well as progress to date." He observed the aerial medical evacuation of a PKK/YPG member "wounded with gunshot wounds to both legs" in an operation. The U.S. general also visited a detention facility in Hasakeh, which "houses more than 5,000 detainees" from Daesh fighters, "predominantly from the terror group’s tactical defeat at the March 2019 battle in Baghuz, Syria." Kurilla observed what CENTCOM called "the structural damage" incurred during a 2022 Daesh attack on the facility.

Roj and al-Hol camps

According to the CENTCOM announcement, Kurilla also visited the PKK/YPG-run Roj and al-Hol camps, where thousands of displaced people are reportedly suffering from a lack of basic humanitarian needs. The camps were set up by the PKK/YPG, which gained control of much of northern and eastern Syria from Daesh with the assistance of the United States, as prisons for their captives. Under the pretext of fighting Daesh, the U.S. has provided military training and given truckloads of military support to PKK/YPG terrorists, despite Türkiye's security concerns. Experts call the U.S. support "too ironic" as the PKK is on Washington’s "terrorist organization" list.

The U.S. top commander first visited the Roj camp, which "is home to 2,500 displaced people," "96% of whom are women and children, almost all Daesh families whose husbands or fathers were killed or captured." Kurilla "spoke with dozens of residents from more than 15 countries who all expressed a desire to return to their country of origin."

The situation in the Roj camp is dire, and global mechanisms and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including the U.N., Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Save the Children, continue to publish alarming reports about the threat arising in the camp.

A recent HRW report, released in early January, based on visits to the al-Hol and Roj camps and other detention centers in northeast Syria since 2019, said conditions for the children are "life-threatening, deeply degrading, and, in many cases, inhuman; their cumulative psychological impact may amount to torture."

The report said nearly 80% of the children held in detention camps are under the age of 12, "far too young to have played an active role (in Daesh), yet many governments refuse to take these young nationals back, citing national security concerns or fearing public backlash."

The report, written by Jo Becker and Letta Tayler of HRW and published on Global Justice Journal's website, said medical care, clean water, shelter, education and recreation for those young captives are "grossly inadequate."

According to Kurilla, "there is no military solution to this problem – the only solution to the lingering threat is the repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration of residents to their countries of origin."

‘Flashpoint of suffering’

Following his visit to the Roj area, the U.S. general visited the al-Hol camp, where he spoke with PKK/YPG members "securing the site," camp administration officials and residents of the camp, as well as a group of female Syrian educators who were teaching children in the camp.

"I saw first-hand the battle for the minds of these children and the poor quality of life in which they live," said Kurilla regarding the camp during his "fourth trip." The general furthered that the camp "is a flashpoint of human suffering" and once again called for the solution of "repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration."

The al-Hol camp has been under the U.N.’s spotlight for a long period. "I have no doubt in saying that the worst camp that exists in today's world is al-Hol, with the worst possible conditions for people and with enormous suffering for the people that have been stranded there for years," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during his visit to Syria’s neighboring Iraq on March 2.

He urged U.N. member states who have nationals in al-Hol to "significantly step up their efforts to facilitate the safe and dignified repatriation of their nationals."

The U.N. chief praised war-ravaged Iraq, which has repatriated hundreds of families from al-Hol since May 2021. "All countries with their citizens in al-Hol must do the same and must do so in the form of a dignified repatriation in line with applicable international laws, and in the case of children, guided by the principles of the best interests of children," he said.

Save the Children's warning

According to Save the Children, the children related to suspected extremist fighters held in Syrian camps may remain stranded there for another 30 years, unless the pace of repatriation accelerates.

In a statement released in 2022 March, the NGO said, "It will take 30 years before foreign children stuck in unsafe camps in northeast Syria can return home if repatriations continue at the current rate."

"The longer the children are left to fester in al-Hol and Roj, the more dangers they face," said the charity's Syria response director, Sonia Khush.

Local authorities have repeatedly called on foreign states to repatriate their citizens, but Western countries have mostly returned them in dribs and drabs, fearing a domestic political backlash.

"These children have done nothing wrong," Khush said. "When will leaders take responsibility and bring them home?"