Fewer than 1,000 families remain at a camp where relatives of suspected Islamic State militants had been held in Syria’s northeast, the camp’s former director said this week, with thousands having fled last month as government forces seized control of the area from Kurdish-led fighters.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that American intelligence believes upwards of 20,000 prisoners — including individuals with ties to the Islamic State terror group — were now at large in the country.

Al-Hol, near the Iraqi border, was one of the main detention camps for relatives of suspected Islamic State fighters who were detained during the US-backed campaign against the jihadist group in Syria.

Control of the camp changed hands last month when government forces under President Ahmed al-Sharaa seized swaths of the northeast from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, including several jails holding Islamic State fighters.

Jihan Hanna, the former director who still coordinates with international agencies and the Syrian government, told Reuters the remaining families were Syrian nationals and were being transferred to a camp in Aleppo. Most of the camp’s foreign nationals had fled, she said.

The Syrian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to the latest camp data obtained by Reuters, dated January 19 — a day before the government took control of the camp — its population was 6,639 families comprising 23,407 people, mostly Syrians and Iraqis, as well as 6,280 foreigners from more than 40 nationalities.

The Syrian government accused the SDF of withdrawing from Al–Hol on January 20 without any coordination. The SDF, in a statement that day, said its forces had been “compelled to withdraw from Al–Hol camp and redeploy to areas surrounding cities in northern Syria that are facing increasing risks and threats.”

According to a US assessment, the Syrian government’s negligence — specifically around the camp’s periphery — is largely to blame for the large number of escapes.

A Syrian government security source said most people in the camp fled that day during a five-hour period when it was unguarded, and that some had left with men who came to take their relatives to unknown destinations.

The security source and a source from a non-governmental organization working there said a section of the camp that housed its most dangerous residents, known as the annex, was empty.

The security source said the escapees had spread throughout Syria and that security authorities, working in cooperation with international partners, had established a unit to “follow up on the matter and pursue those who are wanted.”

Some have left Syria.

In Lebanon, the army has questioned more than a dozen Lebanese who crossed illegally from Syria after leaving Al–Hol, a Lebanese security source said.

The Syrian government’s Directorate of International Cooperation said on Tuesday that hundreds of people, mostly women and children, had been transferred from al–Hol to a newly prepared camp near the town of Akhtarin in northern Aleppo.

Al-Hol facility, located in Syria’s eastern desert near the Iraqi border, was established by the SDF after it took control of large parts of northeast Syria. The camp once held more than 70,000 people, including suspected Islamic State fighters’ family members.

By the end of 2025, only roughly 23,000 people remained, according to a report by the Pentagon’s Inspector General. A diplomat told The Journal earlier this week that there were now some 300 to 400 families still there.

Security analysts have long warned that the camp risked further radicalization of detainees. A report to the US Congress found that those who fled the camp are at risk of recruitment into ISIS, as they’re more vulnerable due to a lack of economic prospects upon returning home.

Intelligence from the Pentagon found that there has been a willingness within Sharaa’s government to help the US combat terror groups, The Journal reported. However, a report published on Thursday by the Department of Defense Inspector General found Damascus’s efforts were “limited by a lack of trained, qualified personnel, and the nascent state of security institutions.”

Washington has drawn close to Syria’s new authorities since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in late 2024. Yet, as fears that extremists could escape mounted, the US military relocated roughly 5,700 adult male Islamic State fighters from the Syrian network of prisons and camps to Iraq in an operation that ended last week.

A defense official told The Journal that the majority of the extremists it feared could break out have been secured.

US media reports on Wednesday claimed the US is planning to withdraw all of its 1,000 remaining troops from Syria over the next two months, ending its presence in the country.

A US official told the Journal the withdrawal will be “conditions-based,” meaning that if ISIS rebounds, troops may wind up staying in Syria.

US forces recently withdrew from some bases in Syria, including Al-Tanf and Al-Shadadi, which were used in the US-led international coalition’s fight against ISIS.

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SDF Syrian Democratic Forces

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