The al-Hol camp detention camp as seen in 2019, after the defeat of the Islamic State caliphate. (Alice Martins for The Washington Post)
As Syria’s new leaders consolidate control and merge rebel factions under the auspices of the country’s defense department, the reins of which they seized from ousted President Bashar al-Assad, the fate of the United States’ Kurdish allies in Syria remains in question. So does that of the camps and prisons they control, housing thousands of family members of Islamic State members, along with suspected militants.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, faces pressure from Turkish-backed Arab militias. The relationship of the SDF to the new Syrian government led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist rebel group that led the push to oust Assad, is uncertain.
The SDF long led the fight against the Islamic State, remnants of which are regrouping in Syria. Here is what to know about the camps the SDF continues to guard.
Who is in the camps?
The camps are, in effect, open-air detention centers. Their population ballooned after the defeat of the Islamic State caliphate in 2019.
But the people there have not been charged with crimes, raising human rights concerns. The vast majority are women and children, many not from Syria but from the region and dozens of countries around the world. Some of them are not thought to be connected to the Islamic State but instead to have fled from violence.
Nearly 47,000 people were being held in two camps, al-Hol and Roj, as of December 2023, according to a report from Amnesty International.
The Global Coalition - a group of 87 member states working to defeat the Islamic State - said in November there were 39,904 people in al-Hol. The population at al-Hol has been declining, the coalition said, because of increased repatriations.
But complicating the matter of repatriation is the refusal by many countries - particularly in the West - to take back their citizens.
Some have stripped alleged Islamic State members of their citizenship, making them stateless. Iraq is one of the few countries that has worked to repatriate its citizens from al-Hol and Roj.
- - - Who is guarding the camps?
The camps are run by the SDF. The United States backs the SDF, providing it with weapons and training, in an effort to combat the Islamic State. The Pentagon disclosed this month that there are about 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, as part of an effort to contain regrouping Islamic State remnants.
The Kurds are an ethnic minority in the Middle East. Without a state of their own, they are divided across parts of Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran.
Turkey considers the SDF to be aligned with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which Ankara and Washington list as a terrorist organization. What could happen next?
The shifting power dynamic in Syria following the fall of Assad’s regime has complicated matters for the SDF, including the camps it controls.
Amid the chaos, the SDF has faced increasing attacks from its foes - namely the Syrian National Army, a Turkish proxy. As part of a U.S.-brokered deal, the SDF has already withdrawn from the city of Manbij.
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) on Tuesday threatened sanctions on Turkey - a NATO ally - if it did not agree to a “sustained ceasefire” and a demilitarized zone. “Turkish-backed forces have ramped up attacks against our Syrian Kurdish partners, once again threatening the vital mission of preventing the resurgence of ISIS,” the senators said in a statement.
Sinam Mohamad, the head of the U.S. mission of the SDF’s political arm, told The Washington Post in an interview this month that the SDF was committed to guarding Islamic State detainees but that increased fighting might force them to divert resources.
And there are concerns that stray Islamic State fighters and sleeper cells could seize on the vulnerability of the moment. Mohamad said Islamic State sleeper cells have become more active since Syrian rebels advanced and seized the capital.
“That is a threat to all of the region. That means whatever we did through all of the years with the United States, with the global coalition to stop and end ISIS, it will be all gone in vain,” she said.
