The Syrian civil uprising, abuses by Syrian President Bashar Assad, and calls from terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, an offshoot of al Qaeda, resulted in an estimated 40,000 or more foreign fighters from more than 100 countries migrating to the battle zone.

Accompanying them were wives and children of foreign fighters and single women destined to marry and bear children there. As ISIS cadres are being rounded up and killed, the captured women and children have been herded into camps, where their fates remain uncertain.