US to transfer Islamic State prisoners from Syria to Iraq
The US military has launched a mission to transfer up to 7,000 Islamic State (IS) group fighters from prisons in northeastern Syria to Iraq, as Syrian government forces take control of areas long controlled by Kurdish-led forces.
US Central Command said it had already moved 150 IS fighters from Hassakeh province to safety in Iraq.
This decision was intended to prevent an escape that “would pose a direct threat to the United States and regional security,” he adds.
On Tuesday evening, the Syrian government announced a new ceasefire with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), after the militia alliance withdrew from the al-Hol camp, which houses thousands of relatives of IS fighters.
On Wednesday, the Syrian Defense Ministry said seven soldiers were killed in a drone attack by Kurdish forces in the Kurdish-dominated province of Hasakah.
The government and the SDF had previously blamed each other for the escape of suspected IS fighters from an SDF-run prison in Shaddadi, southern Hassakeh.
The Syrian Interior Ministry said Monday evening that its special forces and soldiers had entered the town following “the flight of around 120 people.” [IS] terrorists” from the prison.
Search operations carried out by security forces resulted in the arrest of 81 of the fugitives, the press release added.
The SDF said it lost control of Shaddadi prison in the afternoon after “factions affiliated with Damascus” launched a series of attacks and killed dozens of its fighters, who it said were trying to “prevent a serious security catastrophe.”
SDF spokesman Farhad Shami said around 1,500 IS members escaped during the clashes, according to the Reuters news agency. The SDF also accused government forces of attacking al-Aqtan prison, north of the city of Raqqa, which holds IS members and leaders.
ISIS has been weakened in Syria, but still remains active, primarily carrying out attacks against Kurdish-led forces in the northeast in 2025.
The United States was once the SDF’s main ally in Syria. As of 2025, U.S. and partner forces reported arresting more than 300 ISIS members in Syria and killing more than 20 during the same period.
However, US special envoy Tom Barrack said the rationale for the US-SDF partnership had “largely expired” and that his country was currently focused on ensuring the security of facilities holding ISIS prisoners and facilitating talks between the SDF and the government of President Ahmed Sharaa.
“This moment offers a path to full integration into a unified Syrian state with citizenship rights, cultural protections and political participation – long denied under the regime of Bashar al-Assad,” he wrote on X.
