“It seems now that ISIS considers this site as a significant place of burial and execution,” Soufan said. “Perhaps they chose it for its symbolic importance, and they probably reserve it for specific or high value or high profile victims.”
Dabiq today is not completely safe. There are still sleeping ISIS cells in the area, according to officials of the new Syrian government that overthrew the regime of President Bashar al-Assad at the end of last year. They are providing security for the operation, which until now has come out without incident. The new government, which is still under sanctions from the United States, was born from an Islamic group that fought against ISIS.
This operation was only possible after Assad was overthrown. While I was in power, Dabiq was an active combat zone, which made it too dangerous to carry out the slow and methodical excavation work.
The families of the hostages are aware that the operation is underway.
“This mission is really one of the most important missions that anyone can do,” said Andre Khoury, vice president of the Soufan Group and former FBI special agent.
“We are doing this for families. We really want to make sure that families have adequate closure, that their loved ones rest next to them. There is no better mission in the world than this mission,” he said.
“If we were lucky and we could do it on this trip, that would be fantastic. If not, it does not mean that we stop. We will continue our mission. That was our promise and our promise to families, and we will continue doing that until we can take them home,” Khoury said.
