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3. Syria Confirms Mass Escape from Al-Hol Camp for Relatives of Jihadists

Syria's interior ministry confirmed on Wednesday the mass escape of relatives of suspected Islamic State group jihadists from the Al-Hol camp last month following the withdrawal of Kurdish forces who had overseen the facility.

"When our forces arrived, they found cases of collective escapes due to the camp having been opened up in a haphazard manner," ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said at a press conference.

Earlier, an EU internal memo, sent by the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the European Union to member states and dated February 23, said the status of third-country nationals who had fled the al-Hol camp remained unclear and that a majority of them had escaped.

"This raises concerns about how terrorist groups might seek to capitalise on the current situation to increase recruitment efforts among escapees," said the memo, which was reviewed by Reuters.

Al-Hol camp, near the Iraqi border, has been one of the main detention sites for relatives of suspected Islamic State fighters held during the US-backed campaign against the jihadist group in Syria.

Control of the camp shifted in January, when Syrian government forces under President Ahmed al-Sharaa pushed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) out of the area. The SDF had overseen security at the facility for years.

The camp’s population stood at 23,407 the day before the government takeover, including 6,280 foreign nationals from more than 40 countries, according to official camp data cited by Reuters last week.

Separately, the US military said on February 13 that it had completed a mission to transfer 5,700 adult male Islamic State fighters from detention facilities in Syria to Iraq. It had previously indicated that up to 7,000 prisoners could eventually be moved. The EU memo noted that the initial transfer target was not reached.

The EU memo said the "chaotic takeover led to the collapse of security and services in the al-Hol camp, triggering the escape of a significant portion of its population."

Damascus has accused the SDF of pulling out of al-Hol on January 20 without coordinating with government authorities, raising concerns about security and oversight at the camp.

The SDF, for its part, said its forces had been “compelled” to withdraw from the facility and redeploy to areas around nearby cities that it described as coming under threat, without specifying the nature of those threats.