Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria have started withdrawing from key detention facilities holding Islamic State suspects and their families, precipitating a security crisis. The Kurdish move follows a major shift in United States foreign policy, shifting its support in favour of the Syrian government. On Tuesday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced that they were compelled to abandon positions at the al-Hawl camp to redeploy troops towards northern cities under threat from advancing government forces. This strategic retreat coincides with a declaration from the US that it no longer supports the SDF as its primary partner in the region, signaling a pivot toward the central government in Damascus.
The focal point of this security nightmare is the al-Hawl camp, a sprawling detention center housing approximately 24,000 to 26,000 people, including the families of IS fighters. The population is largely Syrian and Iraqi, but includes roughly 10,000 foreign nationals from over 60 countries, many of whom have been refused repatriation by their home governments. The SDF said their withdrawal was a result of "international indifference" toward the IS issue and a necessity to defend Kurdish-majority areas like Kobani and Qamishli from Syrian army advances. The Syrian government announced that it would assume full legal and security responsibility for the camp, accusing the SDF of leaving the facility unguarded to facilitate escapes.
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Simultaneously, a violent jailbreak occurred at a prison in Shaddadi, south of Hasakah. Conflicting narratives have emerged regarding the scale and cause of the breach. The SDF claims that "Damascus factions" attacked the facility, killing dozens of Kurdish fighters and allowing approximately 1,500 Islamic State inmates to escape. The Syrian Interior Ministry, however, put the number at 120, blaming the SDF for the security failure, and said that government forces had subsequently recaptured 81 fugitives. Tensions also flared at al-Aqtan prison near Raqqa, where the SDF accused government-affiliated groups of cutting water supplies and shelling the facility, a claim the Syrian defense ministry denied.
These events were triggered by a rapid reconfiguration of power in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 and the rise of a new government led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack justified the cessation of support for the SDF by arguing that the geopolitical reality has "fundamentally changed". While the SDF was the most effective partner against the Islamic State when there was no functioning state, the US now recognizes the central government under al-Sharaa as a partner in the Global Coalition to Defeat Islamic State. Barrack said the SDF’s original mandate had "largely expired," urging their integration into the Syrian state.
Militarily, the SDF has suffered significant territorial losses, ceding control of Raqqa, Deir el-Zour, and major oil and gas fields to government forces in a matter of days. The swift collapse of SDF lines was exacerbated by the defection of Arab tribal elements and a lack of US intervention. In an attempt to halt the fighting, the Syrian presidency announced a four-day ceasefire on Tuesday night to facilitate the implementation of a previously collapsed 14-point agreement. This truce stipulates that the SDF must integrate into the national army and the interior ministry. In exchange, the government promised not to enter Kurdish-majority cities like al-Hasakah and Qamishli during the truce, suggesting that local security would be managed by residents.
The political stakes are existential for the Kurdish autonomous administration, which views the advance of government forces as a prelude to potential massacres and the erasure of their semi-independent status. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi indicated that while he accepted the deal to stop bloodshed, the fighting had been imposed upon them. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who views the SDF as a terrorist extension of the PKK, praised the Syrian army’s advance as a "successful test" and supported the "one state, one army" principle.
The breakdown in security at detention centers like al-Hawl and Shaddadi poses a global threat, particularly as the SDF, formerly the guarantor of these facilities, shifts its focus to survival. While the Syrian government has pledged to secure the prisons, the transition is fraught with mistrust, as Kurdish leaders fear the Islamist roots of the new government could lead to leniency towards Islamic State networks.
