US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced in a fresh statement that it has launched a mission to transfer ISIS fighters from Syria to Iraqi government-controlled facilities. The announcement came hours after the Syrian army entered the Al-Hawl Camp in the country’s north, resulting in the escape of thousands of ISIS and ISIS-linked prisoners.
“CENTCOM launched a new mission to transfer ISIS detainees from northeastern Syria to Iraq … to help ensure the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities,” the CENTCOM statement said. “The transfer mission began while US forces successfully transported 150 ISIS fighters held at a detention facility in Hasakah, Syria, to a secure location in Iraq. Ultimately, up to 7,000 ISIS detainees could be transferred from Syria to Iraqi-controlled facilities,” it added.
CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper was quoted as saying that Washington is “closely coordinating with regional partners, including the Iraqi government, and we sincerely appreciate their role in ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS.”
“Facilitating the orderly and secure transfer of ISIS detainees is critical to preventing a breakout that would pose a direct threat to the United States and regional security,” he added.
The CENTCOM chief failed to mention the release of scores of ISIS members in Syria over the past few days.
This week, the Syrian military entered Hasakah Governorate’s Al-Hawl Camp, which for around a decade housed tens of thousands of ISIS prisoners and their families, including foreigners who entered Syria illegally to join the US-backed war against former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Since the Syrian army entered the camp on 20 January, thousands of ISIS members and their families have been released from Al-Hawl. Videos on social media showed government-affiliated troops arriving at Al-Hawl and allowing the prisoners to leave.
Over 25,000 people were held in the camp prior to the withdrawal of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which recently lost most of its territory across northern Syria following the start of a massive assault by Damascus.
“It remains unclear how many detainees have fled and who currently controls the camp,” one of the camp’s overseers told Rudaw. The camp is made up of prisons that held ISIS fighters for years, as well as areas designated for internally displaced people.
Syrian Government Forces have raised the flag of ISIS in Al Karama town east of Raqqah. pic.twitter.com/M5iYwlZtih
— ScharoMaroof (@ScharoMaroof) January 21, 2026
Al-Roj Camp and the Hasakah Prison also hold tens of thousands of ISIS militants. Government forces are nearby but have not yet entered those two prisons.
Yet Hasakah’s Al-Shaddadi Prison fell to government troops three days ago after the SDF said it could no longer hold the facility due to continuous attacks. The Kurdish group slammed the US coalition, located at a base two kilometers away, for ignoring repeated distress calls and requests for assistance.
According to Kurdish media, at least 1,500 ISIS members have escaped from Al-Shaddadi. Damascus claims a little over 100 ISIS members escaped, and accused the SDF of letting them out.
According to Damascus-linked media reports, 81 ISIS prisoners have been detained by authorities out of a total of 120 who were “let out” by the Kurdish militia.
“I did a great job. You know what I did? I stopped a prison break,” US President Donald Trump boasted to the New York Post on January 20. “Oh, we did a good job with Syria. They had a prison break. European prisoners were breaking out and I got it stopped. That was yesterday,” he went on to say.
“European terrorists were in prison. They had a prison break. And working with the government of Syria and the new leader of Syria, they captured all the prisoners, put them back to jail, and these were the worst terrorists in the world, all from Europe,” he added, referring to foreign extremists who entered Syria years ago to join Washington’s war against Assad.
NEW: The Pentagon is considering a complete withdrawal of American troops from Syria, U.S. officials said, as Syria’s president moved to wrest control of the northeastern part of the country from an American-backed Kurdish-led militia https://t.co/YRziAcjnoW @laraseligman
— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) January 22, 2026
The US military has, for years, been transferring ISIS militants across different countries in the region. In 2021, Iraq’s anti-ISIS Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) revealed that thermal cameras had recorded US military helicopters transferring ISIS militants to different locations in the country.
In August 2017, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported seeing US choppers transporting ISIS fighters in and out of the city of Deir Ezzor multiple times. The last reports of these activities came mere days before Syrian and Russian troops retook the city from the terrorist group.
The former Syrian government also said years ago that ISIS fighters were being moved out of a Kurdish-run prison and relocated to a US military base. Since the government assault on the north started earlier this month, Kurdish authorities have been warning that attacks on prisons pose the threat of triggering a major ISIS resurgence.
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