ISIS detainees: US strikes 6,000 from Syria to Iraq amid safety issues

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EXCLUSIVE: This was the form of jail break officers say may have modified the area, and maybe even the world, in a single day.

Practically 6,000 ISIS detainees, described by a senior U.S. intelligence official as "the worst of the worst," had been being held in northern Syria as clashes and instability threatened the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the guards chargeable for protecting the militants locked away and stopping a feared ISIS resurgence. U.S. officers believed that if the prisons collapsed within the chaos, the results could be instant.

"If these 6,000 or so acquired out and returned to the battlefield, that might mainly be the moment reconstitution of ISIS," the senior intelligence official advised Fox Information Digital.

In an unique interview, the official walked Fox Information Digital step-by-step via the behind-the-scenes operation that moved 1000's of ISIS detainees out of Syria and into Iraqi custody, describing a multi-agency scramble that unfolded over weeks, with intelligence warnings, fast diplomacy and a swift navy carry.

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ISIS wives and kids stay in "fragile" Syrian detention camps beneath Damascus management whereas male fighters switch to Iraq, leaving detention disaster unresolved. ( Santiago Montag/Anadolu by way of Getty Picture)

The danger, the official defined, had been constructing for months. In late October, Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard started to evaluate that Syria’s transition may tip into dysfunction and create the situations for a catastrophic jailbreak.

The ODNI despatched the official to Syria and Iraq at the moment to start early discussions with each the SDF and the Iraqi authorities about how one can take away what the official repeatedly described as essentially the most harmful detainees earlier than occasions overtook them.

These fears sharpened in early January as preventing erupted in Aleppo and started spreading eastward. Time was operating out to forestall disaster. "We noticed this extreme disaster state of affairs," the official mentioned.

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A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holds an ISIL flag and a weapon on a avenue within the metropolis of Mosul, June 23, 2014. (Reuters Picture)

In keeping with the supply, the ODNI oversaw every day coordination calls throughout companies because the state of affairs escalated. The official mentioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio was "managing the day after day" on coverage issues, whereas the ODNI drove a working group that saved CENTCOM, diplomats and intelligence officers aligned on the pressing query: how one can maintain almost 6,000 ISIS fighters from slipping into the fog of struggle.

The Iraqi authorities, the official mentioned, understood the stakes. Baghdad had its personal causes to maneuver shortly, fearing that if 1000's of detainees escaped, they might spill throughout the border and revive a menace Iraq nonetheless remembers in visceral phrases.

The official described Iraq’s motivation bluntly: leaders acknowledged {that a} large breakout may pressure Iraq again right into a "2014 ISIS is on our border state of affairs as soon as extra."

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the official mentioned, performed a pivotal function in smoothing the diplomatic runway for what would grow to be a significant logistical enterprise.

Then got here the bodily carry. The official credited CENTCOM’s surge of assets to make the plan actual on the bottom, saying that "transferring in helicopters" and different property enabled detainees to be eliminated in a compressed timeframe.

"Because of the efforts… transferring in helicopters, transferring in additional assets, after which simply logistically making this occur, we had been capable of get these almost 6000 out in the midst of just some weeks," the official mentioned.

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A view of Hol Camp, the place households linked to the Islamic State group are being held, in Hasakah province, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (Izz Aldien Alqasem/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures)

The SDF, he mentioned, had been securing the prisons, however its consideration was strained by preventing elsewhere, fueling U.S. fears {that a} single breach may spiral right into a mass escape. Finally, detainees had been transported into Iraq, the place they're now held at a facility close to Baghdad Worldwide Airport beneath Iraqi authority.

The subsequent part, the official mentioned, is concentrated on identification and accountability. FBI groups are in Iraq enrolling detainees biometrically, the official mentioned, whereas U.S. and Iraqi officers study what intelligence will be declassified and utilized in prosecutions.

"What they had been asking us for, mainly, is giving them as a lot intelligence and data that we have now on these people," the official mentioned. "So proper now, the precedence is on biometrically figuring out these people."

The official mentioned the State Division can be pushing nations of origin to take duty for his or her residents held among the many detainees.

"State Division is doing outreach proper now and inspiring all these completely different nations to return and decide up their fighters," he mentioned.

Whereas the switch targeted strictly on ISIS fighters, the senior intelligence official mentioned households held in camps similar to al-Hol weren't a part of the operation, leaving a significant unresolved safety and humanitarian problem.

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Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters pose for a photograph with the American flag on stage after a SDF victory ceremony asserting the defeat of ISIL in Baghouz was held at Omer Oil Area on March 23, 2019 in Baghouz, Syria. (Chris McGrath/Getty Pictures)

The camps themselves had been beneath separate preparations, the official mentioned, and duty shifted as management on the bottom developed.

In keeping with the official, the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian authorities reached an understanding that Damascus would take over the al-Hol camp, which holds 1000's of ISIS-affiliated ladies and kids.

"As you'll be able to see from social media, the al-Hol camp is just about being emptied out," the official mentioned, including that it "seems the Syrian authorities has determined to allow them to go free," a situation the official described as deeply troubling for regional safety. "That may be very regarding."

The destiny of the households has lengthy been seen by counterterrorism officers as one of the vital sophisticated, unresolved parts of the ISIS detention system. Most of the kids have grown up in camps after ISIS misplaced territorial management, and a few are actually approaching preventing age, elevating fears about future radicalization and recruitment.

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Iraqi safety forces pose with ISIS flag which they pulled from College of Anbar on July 26, 2015. Forces clashed with ISIS militants contained in the compound. (Reuters)

For now, the official mentioned, intelligence companies are carefully monitoring developments after a fast operation that, of their view, prevented 1000's of skilled ISIS militants from reentering the battlefield without delay and probably reigniting the group’s preventing pressure.

"It is a uncommon excellent news story popping out of Syria," the official concluded.

Efrat Lachter is a world reporter for Fox Information Digital masking worldwide affairs and the United Nations. Comply with her on X @efratlachter. Tales will be despatched to efrat.lachter@fox.com.