US military airlifts Syria ISIS prisoners to Iraq after SDF retreat: What to know
The airlift underscored the speed with which Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s forces took control of camps and prisons previously secured by US-backed and Kurdish-led militias.
WASHINGTON — US military units in Syria began evacuating captured Islamic State fighters housed in the notorious Ghweiran prison in Hasakah and airlifting them to another detention facility in Iraq on Wednesday.
The last-minute evacuation kicked off a day after Syrian government forces took control of two major detention facilities housing captured ISIS fighters and their families in areas evacuated by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Tuesday.
American forces transferred 150 suspected ISIS fighters from the prison in Hasakah on Wednesday, US Central Command said, and up to 7,000 ISIS detainees are so far slated to be transferred to unspecified facilities in Iraq.
The airlift operation was ordered by CENTCOM to help ensure the ISIS prisoners “remain in secure detention facilities” and was done with the permission of the Iraqi government, officials said.
