What has happened to Islamic State detainees in Syria?

BEIRUT, Jan 23 - The U.S. military is transferring detained Islamic State members out of Syria after the rapid collapse of the Kurdish-led force that had been guarding around a dozen facilities holding IS fighters and affiliated civilians including foreigners. 

Here is an overview of some of the most important prisons and camps holding IS-linked people in northeast Syria:

HASAKAH PRISONS UNDER KURDISH CONTROL

The two main prisons in Hasakah province are the Ghwayran and Panorama prisons, where thousands of battle-hardened IS fighters have been held. Ghwayran alone holds around 4,000 inmates. Other prisons hold adolescent and juvenile boys, some of whom were born in Syria to parents who travelled to join IS. 

Military personnel from a U.S.-led coalition secure the prison's outer perimeters and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) maintain control inside. 

Reuters was granted rare access to one facility in 2025 and spoke to detainees from Britain, Russia and Germany. 

Other jails are located in the cities of Qamishli and Malikiyah, which - like Hasakah city - remain under Kurdish control. 

The U.S. military said on January 21 that it was moving IS prisoners to Iraq. A U.S. official told Reuters the military was moving hundreds of detainees daily and expects to complete the transfer of up to 7,000 prisoners to Iraq in days.

The official said the transfers prioritized "the most dangerous" IS fighters and noted they were citizens of many different countries, including in Europe.

Iraqi legal sources said those transferred included nationals of Iraq and other Arab countries as well as Britain, Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden. Iraq's judiciary said it would begin trying them. 

PRISONS NOW UNDER GOVERNMENT CONTROL 

The Syrian government has taken over some prisons holding IS detainees. 

One of them is Shaddadi, which is in the Hasakah countryside. The SDF said it lost control of the prison as Syrian troops approached and that inmates escaped. Syria's government said the SDF abandoned its posts and released some 200 IS inmates, saying Syrian troops subsequently recaptured most of them. 

A U.S. official confirmed that Syrian troops recaptured many of the escapees, describing them as low-level IS members. 

Another facility that came under Syrian government control is Al-Aqtan, in the neighbouring province of Raqqa. SDF fighters left it on January 23 after a withdrawal agreement with government troops. A Syrian government official said the facility held some 2,000 prisoners, including IS fighters, members of other Islamist groups and regular civilians. 

DETENTION CAMPS

More than 50,000 civilians who fled IS's last strongholds as the group lost territory over the last decade were held in two main camps, known as al-Hol and Roj.

The number has shrunk due to repatriations in recent years primarily by Iraq, whose nationals made up a large chunk of the residents. 

According to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, the camps currently hold more than 28,000 people, most of them Syrian and Iraqi. Around 6,000 foreigners are housed in al-Hol, and another 2,000 foreigners are in Roj - including Shamima Begum, a British-born woman who joined IS. 

Syrian troops control al-Hol after the chaotic withdrawal of Kurdish forces, who still hold Roj. Accounts from Roj residents in late January said the SDF had confined them to their tents and that aid groups operating in the camp had evacuated due to rising security tensions. REUTERS