FILE PHOTO- Foreign women living in Syria’s al-Hol camp, where more than 73,000 people are detained, stand in line to receive goods in March 2019. Residents lived in the former ISIS caliphate and most are children, born to Syrian, Iraqi and foreign parents. Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Syria’s army on Wednesday entered the country’s vast Al-Hol detention camp that houses relatives of suspected Islamic State (IS) group members, from which Kurdish forces withdrew the day before, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
The correspondent saw a large number of soldiers open the camp’s metal gate and enter, while others guarded the entrance.
Al-Hol, located in a desert region of Hasakeh province, holds around 24,000 people, including 15,000 Syrians and about 6,300 foreign women and children of 42 nationalities.
Kurdish forces announced on Tuesday that they had been “compelled to withdraw” from the camp to defend cities in Syria’s north threatened by the army, before a ceasefire was announced.
The camp is the largest for suspected jihadists established by Kurdish forces, who spearheaded the fight against the IS group with help from an international coalition over the past decade before the group was defeated in Syria in 2019.
The Syrian defence ministry said Tuesday it was ready to take responsibility for Al-Hol camp “and all IS (group) prisoners”.
The announcement came as US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said “the original purpose” of Kurdish forces as the primary anti-IS group force had “largely expired”.
The Syrian army deployed on Monday across vast parts of northern and northeastern Syria from which Kurdish forces had withdrawn.
An agreement between the two sides stipulates that the Syrian state becomes responsible for IS group prisoners and that the Kurdish administration be integrated into Syrian state institutions.
Syria’s interior ministry said it was taking necessary measures to maintain the security of Al-Hol.
Thousands of former jihadists, including many Westerners, are held in seven prisons, while tens of thousands of their family members live in two camps established by Kurdish forces in northern Syria, Al-Hol and Al-Roj.
Tom Barrack , a close friend of president Trump was criticized for brokering the deal between the Kurds and the Syrian Government .
Al-Hol camp housing ISIS group families – The women are nearly impossible to identify due to the niqab, and switch from tent to tent to avoid capture. Kareem Khadder/CNN
“Placing thousands of ISIS prisoners under the control of Syria’s new regime led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa is not just reckless — it is potentially catastrophic. This is not a diplomatic issue. It is a basic security question. You do not hand prison keys to people who once stood on the same side of the bars”, Ya Libnan Editorial board wrote on January 19, 2026.
“Al-Sharaa’s political and military roots are deeply intertwined with extremist movements. His rise did not come through state institutions or a professional army, but through networks linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS. Many of the detainees now being transferred into his custody were once his comrades-in-arms — men who shared ideology, training camps, and battlefields. “Ya Libnan added
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
