In northeast Syria, women and children of former radical Islamist fighters were able to escape from Camp Al-Hol and a nearby prison. So far the camp has been run by the Kurdish-dominated security force Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) controlled. The SDF said it withdrew on Tuesday afternoon amid ongoing fighting between them and Syrian government troops. According to various reports on social networks that have not yet been conclusively confirmed, some of them were able to flee in this power vacuum.
The Al-Hol camp is located southeast of the city of Hasakah in northeastern Syria. At least 37,000 people live there, including many women and children of former fighters of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, known as IS. Al-Hol is officially a refugee camp, but it is more like a prison: inmates are not allowed to leave of their own free will.
According to the aid organization Doctors Without Borders, two thirds of the inmates are children. They reported poor hygiene conditions and human rights violations by the security forces responsible – a situation that is not exactly conducive to possible de-radicalization.
The Syrian Defense Ministry in Damascus published a statement on Camp Al-Hol on Telegram: They are “fully ready” to take over the camp and the IS prisons in the regionand reject “the SDF leadership abusing the prisoners (…) as a political bargaining chip.”
Breaking out of prison
Fighters are also said to have broken out of Al-Shaddadi prison in Hasakah province late on Monday. Mainly Chinese and Bulgarian Daesh fighters probably live there. As a Al-Jazeera-Reporters on site reported that the Kurdish guards withdrew. Then there were violent fights in the camps. The SDF reported on Monday evening that around 1,500 Daesh fighters had broken out.
The SDF accused the interim government in Damascus of of attacking prisons in the northeastwhere IS members are housed. The interim government, in turn, accused the SDF of releasing the prisoners. And explained that only 120 people escaped. Of these, the government says it has recaptured around 80.
The IS militia has been officially defeated since 2019. However, isolated cells are still active in both Syria and Iraq. There they usually attack members of the state security authorities.
The SDF has long been the US military’s most important ally in the fight against IS in Syria. The federal government at the time also supplied the Kurds with anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and rifles for the fight against IS.