ISIS detainees: US moves 6,000 from Syria to Iraq amid security concerns

Exclusive: This was the kind of prison break that officials say could have changed the region, and perhaps even the world, overnight.

Nearly 6,000 ISIS detaineesdescribed by a senior US intelligence official as “the worst ever,” was being held in northern Syria where clashes and instability threaten the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the guards responsible for keeping militants locked up and preventing the return of ISIS. US officials believe that if the prisons collapse in the chaos, the consequences will be immediate.

“If those 6,000 or so get out and go back to the battlefield, it will be an immediate reconstitution of ISIS,” a senior intelligence official told Fox News Digital.

In an exclusive interview, the official walked Fox News Digital step-by-step through the behind-the-scenes process Transferring thousands of ISIS detainees To and from Syria Iraqi detentiondescribing a multi-agency scramble that developed over weeks, with quick intelligence and diplomatic warnings and a rapid military lift.

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ISIS wives and children remain in “fragile” Syrian detention camps under Damascus’ control, while male fighters are being transferred to Iraq, leaving the detention crisis unresolved. (Santiago Montag/Anadolu via Getty Image)

The official explained that the danger had been increasing for months. In late October, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard began to assess that the transition in Syria could turn chaotic and create the conditions for a disastrous prison break.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence sent the official to Syria and Iraq at the time to begin early discussions with both the SDF and the Iraqi government about how to extract what the official repeatedly described as the most dangerous detainees before events overtook them.

These fears worsened in early January as fighting broke out in Aleppo and spread eastward. Time was running out to prevent disaster. “We have seen this dangerous crisis situation,” the official said.

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A fighter from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) carries the organization’s flag and a weapon in a street in the city of Mosul, June 23, 2014. (Reuters photos)

According to the source, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence oversaw daily coordination calls between agencies as the situation escalated. The Foreign Minister official said Marco Rubio He “managed the day-to-day” of policy considerations, while the Office of the Director of National Intelligence led a working group that kept CENTCOM, diplomats and intelligence officials on the same page on the pressing question: how to prevent nearly 6,000 ISIS fighters from slipping into the fog of war.

The official said that the Iraqi government is aware of the risks. Baghdad had its own reasons for moving quickly, fearing that if thousands of detainees escaped, they would stream across the border and revive a threat that Iraq still remembers so deeply.

The official described Iraq’s motives bluntly: Commanders realized that a massive breach could force Iraq to return to “a 2014 ISIS situation on our borders again.”

The official said that the US Embassy in Baghdad played a pivotal role in paving the diplomatic path for what later became a major logistical project.

Then came the physical lift. The official credited increased US Central Command resources for making the plan a reality on the ground, saying that “moving in helicopters” and other assets enabled the detainees to be transferred in a compressed time frame.

“Thanks to the efforts… moving in by helicopter, moving more resources, and then making it happen logistically, we were able to get nearly 6,000 people out in just a few weeks,” the official said.

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A view of Al-Hawl camp, where families associated with the Islamic State are detained, in Hasakah Governorate, Syria, Wednesday, January 21, 2026. (Izz al-Din al-Qasim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

He said that the Syrian Democratic Forces were securing prisons, but their interest had been strained by fighting elsewhere, raising US fears that any single breach could lead to a mass escape. finally, The detainees were transferred to IraqThey are now being held in a facility near Baghdad International Airport under Iraqi authority.

The next phase focuses on identification and accountability, the official said. FBI teams The official said that officials in Iraq are registering detainees using a biometric method, while American and Iraqi officials are examining intelligence information that can be declassified and used in trials.

“What they were asking us, essentially, was to provide them with as much intelligence as we had on these individuals,” the official said. “So, the priority now is to identify these individuals through biometrics.”

The official said Ministry of Foreign Affairs It also pushes the countries of origin to assume their responsibility towards their citizens detained among detainees.

“The State Department is now communicating and encouraging all these different countries to come and bring their fighters,” he said.

The senior intelligence official said the transfer was strictly focused on ISIS fighters Families detained in camps Camps such as Al-Hawl were not part of the operation, leaving a major security and humanitarian challenge unresolved.

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SDF fighters pose for a photo with the American flag on stage after the SDF victory ceremony declaring the defeat of ISIS in Baghouz, held at the Omar Oil Field on March 23, 2019 in Baghouz, Syria. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

The camps themselves were under separate arrangements, the official said, and responsibility changed as control of the land developed.

According to the official, Syrian and Syrian Democratic Forces The Syrian government reached an understanding that Damascus would control Al-Hawl camp, which houses thousands of women and children belonging to ISIS.

“As you can see from social media, Al-Hawl camp is largely evacuated,” the official said, adding that “it appears that the Syrian government has decided to release them,” a scenario the official described as extremely worrying for regional security. “This is very disturbing.”

Counterterrorism officials have long viewed the fate of families as one of the most complex and unresolved elements of ISIS’s detention system. Many of the children grew up in the camps after ISIS lost control of territory, and some are now approaching fighting age, raising concerns about future radicalization and recruitment.

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Iraqi security forces stand with an ISIS flag that they pulled from Anbar University on July 26, 2015. The forces clashed with ISIS militants inside the complex. (Reuters)

For now, the official said, intelligence agencies are closely monitoring developments after a quick operation that, in their view, prevented thousands of experienced ISIS fighters from returning to the battlefield at once and potentially reigniting the group’s fighting power.

“This is a rare good news story coming out of Syria,” the official concluded.