USAID's Office of Inspector General [7] has found that security forces and administrators at northeast Syria's al-Hol [8] camp "diverted aid"—bread from a USAID-funded program—"from the intended beneficiaries to themselves." An unnamed "awardee" of the aid, presumably an NGO, was "forced to rely on the Asayish and the Camp Administration to deliver bread within the inaccessible areas of the camp, which created the opportunity for the initial diversion. However, once the awardee received full access to the camp, the Asayish and the Camp Administration continued to divert the USAID-funded bread." Asayish [9] (for Internal Security Forces of North & East Syria) is the militia associated with the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF [10]). Al-Hol, which is home to both sympathizers and victims of the so-called Islamic State, has become notorious for its dangerous and extremely harsh conditions [11]. (TNH [13])
The US military contnues [14] to have some 900 troop embedded [15] with the SDF in northeast Syria.
