Detention facilities in Syria under spotlight after clashes between Kurdish fighters, Syrian forces

BEIRUT (AP) — Recent conflict between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria has again brought to the world's attention the detention facilities where Islamic State group members are held and camps where mostly women and children have been locked up for years.

During the battles that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces fought against the Islamic State group over the past decade, thousands of IS fighters of different nationalities were captured and have been held in some dozen jails in northeast Syria.

The U.S.-backed Syrian forces also captured tens of thousands of mostly women and children linked to IS and most of them have been held in the sprawling al-Hol Camp in Syria’s northeast close to the border with Iraq. A smaller group is held in the Roj camp close to where the borders of Syria, Turkey and Iraq meet.

In recent days, Syrian government forces have captured wide areas that had been controlled by the SDF for years in an offensive that took everyone by surprise. Forces loyal to Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa now are edging closer to detention centers and the Roj camp. They appear to be in control of al-Hol camp as of Tuesday afternoon.

State media reported that dozens of IS detainees managed to flee the Shaddadeh Prison in the town of Shaddadeh near the Iraqi border amid the fighting and blamed SDF fighters for releasing them. Most of those who fled were captured, state media said. There has been tensions also around al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa province.

Apart from the Shaddadeh incident, no IS suspects have managed to flee from other facilities.

The Syrian government that in late 2025 joined the U.S.-led international coalition fighting against IS has said over the past days that authorities are ready to take over and manage the camps and prisons vowing they are committed to fighting extremists.

The dangers of IS detainees fleeing

When IS declared a caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014, they attracted extremists from around the world. From their caliphate, the extremists plotted attacks around the world that left hundreds dead from Europe to Asia to Arab countries.

The group also carried out brutalities in Syria and Iraq, including the enslavement of thousands of Yazidi women and girls who were taken when the militants overran northern Iraq in their violent 2014 campaign.

IS militant boasted of their exploits with videos they released at the time including beheading people or cutting of their hands over charges of theft. Women who were accused of adultery were stoned to death while gays were thrown from high-rises.

The possible escape of detainees raises concerns that they could join the group’s sleeper cells that still carry out and claim deadly attacks in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

Muaz Al Abdullah, Middle East research manager at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, said the recurrence of security breakdowns in the vicinity of prisons holding IS fighters similar to what happened in Shaddadeh and Raqqa “carry serious ramifications and consequences for the security of Syria and the region as a whole.”

"Some of these facilities contain nearly 5,000 ISIL fighters, which pose a significant threat amid the current security vacuum in northeastern Syria,” he said using an acronym for IS.

The main detention facilities in Syria for IS suspects

There are several prisons in Syria where IS suspects are held and they are spread out over northern and northeastern Syria.

According to a U.S. State Department report on terrorism, an estimated 9,000 IS fighters, including 1,600 Iraqis and 1,800 fighters from countries outside Syria and Iraq remained in detention facilities controlled by the SDF.

The largest detention facility is the Gweiran Prison, now called Panorama, and has held about 4,500 IS-linked detainees for years. The prison is in the city of Hassakeh that is still under full control of the SDF.

Another facility is the Shaddadeh Prison that witnessed clashes and now is under the control of government forces. Syrian authorities said 120 IS detainees managed to flee during the fighting and 81 of them were recaptured later. Search operations are ongoing for the rest.

A facility that also witnessed tensions is the al-Aqtan Prison near the northern city of Raqqa, that was once the de facto capital of IS. On Tuesday, the SDF accused “Damascus-affiliated factions” of cutting off water supplies to the al-Aqtan prison calling the move a “blatant violation of humanitarian standards.”

Negotiations were underway to reach a deal that would put the al-Aqtan prison under government control.

Other detention facilities include the Cherkin Prison in the northern city of Qamishli and Derik prison near the border with Iraq and Turkey.

IS has vowed over the years that it will work to release IS detainees from prisons as well as women and children from al-Hol and Roj.

Al-Hol and Roj camps

After the defeat of IS in Syria in March 2019, tens of thousands of women, many of them wives and widows of IS fighters, and children were taken by the SDF to the al-Hol camp on the edge of the northeastern town of al-Hol.

There have been concerns over the years that the camp — which has witnessed crimes by IS sleeper cells against women who were distancing themselves from the group — is a breading place for future fighters where some of the children are fed extreme ideology by their mothers.

On Tuesday, Syria’s interior ministry accused the SDF of allowing the release of a number of people from the camp. It was not clear if IS members managed to flee amid the chaos.

Later in the day, state news agency SANA posted photos of government gunmen guarding the al-Hol camp saying that they are now in charge.

At its peak in 2019, some 73,000 people were living at the al-Hol camp but the numbers have since dropped with some countries repatriating their citizens.

Sheikhmous Ahmad, a Kurdish official overseeing camps for displaced in northeastern Syria, told The Associated Press that al-Hol currently has a population of about 24,000, of which Syrians make the largest group with about 14,500 followed by Iraqis who are nearly 3,000.

Ahmad added that about 6,500 women and children from other nationalities are held in the highly secured section of the camp known as the annex as they are the most die-hard IS supporters who came from around the world to join the extremist group.

At Roj camp, which has a more relaxed atmosphere than al-Hol, with some women not even covering their hair, there are about 2,500 people. One of the most known women held at Roj camp is Shamima Begum who traveled from Britain as a teenager to join the group almost 11 years ago.