اخبار سوريا اليوم – وطن نيوز
سوريا اليوم – اخبار سوريا عاجل
W6nnews.com ==== وطن === تاريخ النشر – 2026-04-02 10:34:00
This material is published within the framework of a partnership between Enab Baladi and DW Kamal Sheikho – Raqqa in Syria, a country that witnessed armed conflict and internal wars that lasted for about 14 years and attracted jihadists from various parts of the world. Many Syrian women were associated with these jihadists. This exclusive field investigation by DW Arabia from the Syrian city of Raqqa is unique in that it includes a press interview for the first time with the widow of the famous American fighter “Russell Dennison,” who became famous in the ranks of ISIS at the time, and with the widow of a British jihadist who was close to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. These fighters gave birth to children who live with their mothers of unknown parentage, after all Western and Arab countries and governments refused to grant them the nationality of their fathers, or even acknowledge their existence. These mothers remained confused as their children grew up year after year without schools or a family name to protect them from the consequences of the future. In a rural house on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa, located in northern Syria, Umm Ishaq, a mother of two children with a British father who was a leader in the ranks of the terrorist organization ISIS, before he was killed in the Battle of Baghouz at the beginning of 2019 in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor Governorate, east of the country, narrates: He left her with a wound that will never heal and children growing up year after year before her eyes, in the absence of their father’s family name and nationality, and this mother does not have any document proving their lineage or even the date of their birth. This woman is one of thousands of Syrian women who have been associated with foreign fighters. Their marriages quickly turned into a nightmare and left a heavy legacy for women to bear alone. Umm Ishaq, who is in her mid-thirties, mentioned in her interview with DW Arabia that she was associated with a British jihadist in February 2015 who claimed that his name was “Iskandar Omar al-Jamali.” It was later revealed that: “This name was not real. He served as head of the organization’s weapons development factories, where he manufactured weapons and drones,” according to Umm Ishaq. “His temper was harsh, and I did not know his family name.” This jihadist was close to the leader and founder of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Umm Ishaq continued her conversation, saying: “Whenever he was away from home for a long period of time, he would tell me that he met al-Baghdadi and how they secretly transported him to Iraq to meet him.” Regarding the nature of her previous life, she explained that his nature was “cruel,” and her eyes filled with tears as she recalled situations that she would never forget throughout her life: “He would beat me for the most trivial reasons, and he would deprive me of food and drink for a week to punish me.” She said that her husband, Iskandar, after their engagement for less than a month, “married a Dutch jihadist whom they had selected for him from the Organization Bureau as a reward for his services. Then he married Aleppo in the same year and married for the fourth time to a girl from Raqqa.” However, he did not have any children except with his second wife, after the Briton, Umm Ishaq. Regarding the position of her family and her social environment on this fate, she confirmed that the majority refuse to deal with it: “My family and even those around me refuse to deal with me or play with my children and say that they are children (ISIS), and this is a double tragedy for what we are in today.” While she was speaking, her 10-year-old son, Ishaq, sat and was complaining of the presence of shrapnel in his head and needed surgery. His mother indicated that this shrapnel: “He was exposed to it during the years we lived in Raqqa in 2016 and was exposed to bombing by the international coalition aircraft.” As for his younger brother, Yaqoub (8 years old), who sat nearby, his features were English, he was calm in nature, and spoke little, resembling his father, according to the mother. She said, “My children today are deprived of school seats.” The reason is the absence of an ID card and a family book. I was unable to register them in any school, in addition to our poor financial condition, which deprived them of education and appropriate treatment.” Fear of revealing the truth about the father. During the years of its rule over vast areas of Syria and urban city centers between the years 2014 and 2019, ISIS was able to attract thousands of jihadists from all over the world. The United Kingdom at the time estimated the number of its citizens who joined the organization at 850 people, including 145 women and 50 children, one of whom was the jihadist Iskandar. This widow wonders with bewilderment that she does not know the truth about her ex-husband’s lineage or his family name, and that no member of his family has communicated with her, and the unknown fate of her two children, who do not have personal documents within the country in which they were born and grew up. She added with regret: “When I take them to the doctor or any hospital, the first question is: What is the father’s name and what does he do? I do not have this answer and I am unable to reveal the truth about their father.” All the information she possesses is that after entering Syria in mid-2014, he initially joined the ranks of Al-Nusra Front, then he joined the ranks of ISIS and was its emir until his death. According to Umm Ishaq, Iskander was married to a British woman who strongly refused to accompany him on his travel to Syria, but she remained in contact with him throughout his stay, and commented on the recentness of his killing: “After his killing, his British wife contacted him once and knew his fate, but she refused to give me any information about his family or their residential address, and did not respond to the rest of the calls.” When she heard the news of his killing: “Frankly, I was very happy and screamed out of happiness. I remember one time he beat me in the street to the point that the fighters came running to free me from him. I remained unconscious for an entire hour from extreme fear. It was unjust,” she said. American Jihadist Dennison… For the first time, Umm Istabraq (38 years old), who is from the city of Raqqa and is the widow of the American Jihadist “Russell Dennison,” speaks; In a press interview she gave to DW Arabia, how her ex-husband was among the first Americans to join ISIS. He was likely killed by an explosive device or an international coalition airstrike during the Battle of Baghouz in the spring of 2019. Dennison was from the American state of Florida and lived in Pennsylvania. This woman said: “He entered Syria at the beginning of 2015 to make his father very angry and then broke off his relationship with him completely, and his mother continued to communicate with him and send money, because he was injured when he was injured.” He came to Raqqa at the end of the same year,” she said. She also mentioned that he had an American journalist, “a very close friend of his who continued to communicate with him until his death,” she said. This woman, who was dressed in black and only her eyes were visible, explained that they got married in 2016 and moved between most of the areas that were then under the control of the organization. “When he arrived in Raqqa, he was injured in his foot. He did nothing and was living on the organization’s sponsorship, which was 50 US dollars a month, but his mother was helping us financially.” Umm Istabraq revealed that Dennison initially joined the ranks of “Jabhat al-Nusra,” which was later known as “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” which was led by the current president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, before assuming the presidency of Syria at the end of 2024. He declared his conversion to Islam and then pledged allegiance to ISIS, and his nom de guerre was “Abu Yusef Jalal al-Din.” She noted that their relationship in the beginning was characterized by love and understanding: “He was kind and spoke a little Arabic, but our differences increased and he decided to stay with the organization until he was killed in Baghouz. I was displaced to Al-Hawl camp and then returned to my family in Raqqa through tribal sponsorship.” Bullying and rejection from society. However, the life of the jihadist Denison was shrouded in mystery, especially after the organization accused him of espionage and intelligence with international bodies. She said: “At the end of 2018, the organization arrested him and he remained in prison for more than a month on charges of intelligence and espionage for international intelligence services.” She reported that her husband, after his release from prison, insisted greatly on defecting and escaping to Türkiye or another country. Today, years after the killing of her husband, this woman does not hide that she is subjected to social bullying, is haunted by the stigma of being associated with an “American ISIS,” and suffers social rejection from her family and neighbors, because she is the widow of a foreign fighter and gave birth to children who do not have their father’s nationality. Regarding the most prominent challenges facing her daily life, she adds: “There is no proof for my daughters, no family book, no civil registration, and we do not have even a single document proving their lineage and my marriage to an American citizen, and that these daughters are from his lineage.” A year and several months after the Syrian transitional government headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa took power and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and its allies took control. The latter was engaged in years-long conflict and fighting against ISIS. It pledged, in May last year, to integrate foreign fighters into the Ministry of Defense. Umm Istabraq wonders about her condition and the condition of many Syrian women who have lost their husbands, and whether she will be able to naturalize her two daughters as they are viewed as of unknown parentage. Dennison had given Istabraq’s mother the number of an American journalist with whom they had a strong friendship. They remained in contact until his death. She confirmed that he had asked his friend to take care of delivering her to his family and his mother. “I texted the number many times, but he would not answer despite my pleas.” She explained that her daughter, Istabraq, is 9 years old today and wonders a lot about her grandmother and her father’s family. She adds: “My daughter Istabraq has grown up and always asks me about her grandmother and her father’s family, because Dennison used to talk to her.” “A lot about his mother, and how she lives in a beautiful house in America and has a big garden.” Failure to confirm the incidents of marriage and births. Official figures and statistics are absent on the number of Syrian women who married foreign fighters, and it is difficult to count the numbers of their children. However, many of the marriage incidents took place in the city of Raqqa, given that it was the first urban city controlled by the organization in Syria, and was subject to its control for nearly 4 consecutive years between the years 2014 and 2017 before it was defeated by the International Coalition Forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces. Among these marriages is the story of three sisters who married Arab immigrant fighters from the same family. One of these women, Umm Muhammad, told DW Arabic, who comes from the town of Mansoura in the countryside of Raqqa city on its southwestern side, that she is married to a Tunisian fighter from the capital, Tunis. Tunisia was the third largest country that exported foreign fighters to Syria during the control of ISIS, and their numbers were estimated at about 3,000 fighters who joined the ranks of the organization, while the number of fighters from countries of the Russian Federation reached 3,400 fighters, and the number of fighters who came from Jordan was about 3,000. From France came 1,900 jihadists. According to Umm Muhammad, her husband, nicknamed “Abu Basir al-Tunisi,” was detained by the SDF forces before he was transferred last month to Iraq. No information is known about him or whether he was brought to trial. She has three children, the eldest of whom is 12 years old. Regarding her daughters who married Arab fighters, she says: “My second sister is married to a Bahraini fighter who was killed in the Al-Hasakah prison riot 6 years ago, and she has one child. As for our third sister, she is married to a Moroccan fighter who was killed.” During the Battle of Baghouz, she has two children from him.” There are dire consequences for children, and there are no accurate statistics on cases of marriage of Syrian women to foreign fighters. According to press reports published in 2018, there are about 1,750 cases of marriage of Syrian women to foreign immigrants, giving birth to approximately 1,830 children of unknown parentage. According to legal experts, the consequences of these marriages are reflected on the children in the first instance, as they remain without identification papers, without schools, without health care, and do not have the right to move due to the absence of official records, and therefore they have no legal existence. Lawyer and jurist Joan Muhammad points out to DW Arabia that the marriage of Syrian women to foreign jihadists who have either been killed or are languishing behind prisons; They did not officially prove their marriages, as “Syrian law does not grant citizenship to children of a Syrian mother with a foreign father, and if it is legally and legally proven that the father is unknown, the child is registered in his mother’s name, after long and complex procedures and approval by the Sharia courts.” Regarding these marriages, social activist Noura Khalil, director of the Shams Rehabilitation and Training Organization, who worked in the Al-Hawl and Roj camps in northeastern Syria, says that this marriage: “It is called cross-national marriage, and its percentage increases during periods of war and crisis. The marriage of Syrian women to foreigners has destroyed the future of children due to the loss of their lineage and the inability to know the father’s true identity,” which legally stripped them of their rights to education and health care. Their names are not included in the official records, and they will not receive ID cards. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had warned in a report that Syrians who did not officially register their marriages, “and whose births were not registered, are thus increasing the number of socially unprotected women and children who lack identity documents and social eligibility.” The report indicated that the Syrians lacked easy access mechanisms for official registration, and “if the current situation continues, there is a risk that a generation of Syrian children of unknown lineage and identity will emerge within its borders after the end of the Syrian crisis,” according to what was stated in the report. Edited by: Arif Jabo Related
