Relatives of IS fighters fled en masse from detention camps in Syria

“When our forces arrived, they discovered many cases of mass escapes due to a complete lack of security in the prison,” Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said today, referring to the situation at al-Hol prison camp in northeastern Syria.

Al-Hol is the largest detention camp for relatives of gunmen who are members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) rebels. The camp was once under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but they were pushed out of swathes of land in the country’s north by the Syrian army last month.

Under pressure from government troops, the SDF withdrew from al-Hol camp on January 20 and Syrian security forces took over the facility a few hours later.

“The SDF withdrew suddenly, without coordinating actions and without prior notice to the Syrian government or the international anti-IS coalition,” Mr. al-Baba said, adding that chaos at al-Hol detention camp occurred immediately after the Kurdish forces withdrew.

The takeover force also discovered “more than 138 holes” used to escape in the 17 km long wall system around the camp. Thousands of women and children have fled al-Hol and their whereabouts are currently unknown.

According to a spokesman for the Syrian Interior Ministry, al-Hol is where about 23,500 people are detained, most of them Syrian and Iraqi citizens. More than 6,500 foreigners of 44 nationalities lived in a heavily secured area at the camp. Last week, Syrian authorities moved the remaining families at al-Hol to another location in the north of the country.

IS emerged and took control of many lands in Syria and Iraq in 2014, causing a series of massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.

Backed by US-backed forces, Iraq declared defeat of IS in 2017 and the SDF finally pushed the group back in Syria in 2019. The SDF subsequently captured thousands of IS fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps like al-Hol.