AL-HOL, Syria (AP) — Syrian government forces on Wednesday took full control of a sprawling camp in northeast Syria housing thousands of people linked to the Islamic State group, as a truce between the government and Kurdish fighters appeared to be holding.
A convoy of armored vehicles with government forces moved into the al-Hol camp Wednesday following two weeks of clashes with the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which lost large parts of land
that they had controlled and appeared closer to merging into the Syrian military, in accordance with government demands.
The capture of the camp came a day after the SDF withdrew from the facility. At its peak in 2019, some 73,000 people were living at al-Hol camp. Their number has since declined with some countries repatriating their citizens.
The camp is still home to some 24,000, most of them women and children linked to the Islamic State group. They include about 14,500 Syrians and nearly 3,000 Iraqis. Some 6,500 others, many of them loyal IS supporters who came from around the world to join the extremist group, are separately held in a highly secured section of the camp.
There have been reports that some families fled during the chaos but there has been no official confirmation.
An Associated Press journalist visited the camp Wednesday as scores of soldiers guarded the main entrance.
“Go inside and see the chaos that is happening. There are no clinics, no running water, no bread and no vegetables,” an Iraqi woman living in the camp said, after SDF fighters left the area. The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, called on the Iraqi government to repatriate her.
Another Iraqi woman, who also refused to give her full name out of fear of reprisal, told The Associated Press that her brother and uncle were held in jails in northeast Syria and called on authorities to release them so that she can all return home.
The Syrian government and the SDF announced a new four-day truce on late Tuesday, after a previous ceasefire broke down.
Northeast Syria was relatively calm on Wednesday. A drone attack killed seven soldiers and wounded 20 while they were inspecting a weapons depot abandoned by SDF fighters in the northeastern town of Yaaroubiyeh, the Defense Ministry said, blaming the Kurdish forces. The SDF in a statement denied it, saying the blast was triggered by soldiers moving the ammunition.
The SDF and the government traded blame over the escape Monday of IS members from a prison in the northeastern town of Shaddadeh. Many of the detainees were recaptured by government troops who took control of the jail, state media reported.
The SDF remains in control of the vast majority of more than a dozen prisons, where some 9,000 IS members have been held for years. Under a deal announced Sunday, government forces were to take over the control of the prisons but the transfer did not go smoothly.
The largest detention facility, Gweiran Prison, now called Panorama, has held about 4,500 IS-linked detainees and still was in the SDF hands.
Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Hassan Abdul-Ghani said in televised comments Tuesday night that the government “was and still is in direct confrontation” with the IS. He added that authorities are ready to take over prisons with IS members.
The IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries. The SDF played a major role in defeating the IS.
Tom Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria, said in a statement Tuesday that the SDF’s role as the primary anti-IS force “has largely expired, as Damascus is now both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities."
He added that the “recent developments show the U.S. actively facilitating this transition, rather than prolonging a separate SDF role.”
