Syrian forces take control of IS prison near Raqqa after SDF withdrawal

Syrian government forces took control on Friday of a prison in the country’s north that houses members of the Islamic State (IS) group, following the withdrawal of hundreds of Kurdish-led fighters under a recent agreement.

In a statement, Syria’s Interior Ministry said the government’s prisons authority has assumed control of al-Aqtan prison , located north of the former IS stronghold of Raqqa, and has begun reviewing the files of detainees held there.

Al-Aqtan is a high-security detention facility used to hold suspected and convicted IS militants captured during years of fighting against the extremist group. The prison was previously guarded by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) , a Kurdish-led, US-backed alliance that spearheaded the ground campaign against IS in Syria.

The takeover marks the second such prison to come under government control this week, after Syrian troops entered Shaddadeh prison near the Iraqi border on Monday. During the unrest surrounding that handover, 120 IS detainees managed to escape, though state media reported that most were later recaptured.

IS detainees have remained in prisons run by the SDF since the group’s territorial defeat in 2019, when the SDF captured the last enclave held by the extremists. Since then, around 9,000 IS fighters have been held in more than a dozen detention centres across northeast Syria, while tens of thousands of women and children linked to IS have been confined in camps such as al-Hol. These facilities were never transferred to Damascus due to years of hostility between the Syrian government and the SDF, and the continued presence of US forces backing the Kurdish-led group.

The move into al-Aqtan comes two days after the US military announced it had begun transferring some IS detainees, amid shifting security arrangements in the region. On Wednesday, Syrian government forces also took control of the al-Hol camp.

Raqqa Governor Abdul-Rahman Salama said al-Aqtan prison holds up to 2,000 detainees , though it remains unclear how many are formally linked to IS. Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Abdul-Qader Tahan visited the facility on Friday to assess detention conditions, according to state television.

Negotiations over the prison had been under way for days before a deal was reached to open a corridor allowing nearly 800 SDF fighters assigned to guarding the facility to withdraw westward toward Kobani, an area still under SDF control. The SDF said the evacuation was carried out with the support of the US-led coalition and confirmed that al-Aqtan held detainees from the IS “terrorist organisation.”

The takeover followed a two-week Syrian government offensive against SDF positions in northeast Syria, which displaced thousands of civilians, most of them Kurds, into Hassakeh province. A fragile four-day ceasefire was declared on Tuesday night after several earlier truces collapsed.

Under a broader agreement signed by interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi , the US-backed force is expected to merge into Syria’s defence and interior ministries, effectively ending its autonomous security role.

US envoy Tom Barrack said this week that the SDF’s role as Syria’s main anti-IS force “has largely expired,” adding that Washington is not interested in maintaining a separate SDF security structure.

Meanwhile, Iraq has requested that IS detainees be transferred to its custody, a proposal accepted by the United States and welcomed by Damascus, which said the move would support broader efforts to address the legacy of the extremist group.