US to transfer Islamic State prisoners from Syria to Iraq

The US military has launched a mission to transfer up to 7,000 Islamic State (IS) group fighters from prisons in north-eastern Syria to Iraq, as Syrian government forces take control of areas where Kurdish-led forces have long run a network of camps.

US Central Command said it had already moved 150 IS fighters from Hasakeh in Syria to a secure location in Iraq.

The move aimed to prevent a breakout that “would pose a direct threat to the United States and regional security”, the statement said.

Earlier this week Syria’s government announced a ceasefire with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), after the militia withdrew from al-Hol camp – which holds thousands of suspected IS members.

Separately on Wednesday, Syria’s defence ministry said seven soldiers were killed in a drone attack by Kurdish forces in the Kurdish-dominated province of Hasakah.

The government and SDF had earlier blamed each other over the escape of suspected IS fighters from an SDF-run prison in Shaddadi, in southern Hasakeh.

Syria’s interior ministry said on Monday night that its special forces and army soldiers had entered the town following “the escape of around 120 [IS] terrorists” from the prison.

Search operations by the security forces resulted in the arrest of 81 of the fugitives, it added.

The SDF said it had lost control of Shaddadi prison in the afternoon after “Damascus-affiliated factions” mounted a series of attacks and killed of dozens of its fighters, who it said had been attempting to “prevent a serious security catastrophe”.

SDF spokesman Farhad Shami said around 1,500 IS members had escaped during the clashes, according to Reuters news agency. The SDF also accused government forces of attacking al-Aqtan prison, north of the city of Raqqa, which is holding IS members and leaders.

IS has been weakened in Syria, but still remains active, predominantly carrying out attacks against Kurdish-led forces in the north-east in 2025.

The US was once the SDF’s main ally in Syria. In 2025, the US and partner forces detained more than 300 IS operatives in Syria and killed over 20 during the same period.

However US special envoy Tom Barrack says the rationale for the US-SDF partnership has “largely expired”, and that his country was currently focused on ensuring the security of facilities holding IS prisoners and facilitating talks between the SDF and President Ahmed Sharaa’s government.

“This moment offers a pathway to full integration into a unified Syrian state with citizenship rights, cultural protections, and political participation – long denied under Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” he wrote on X.