US General Warns of ISIS ‘Army in Detention’ in Syria, Iraq

A handout picture released by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 11, 2023, shows US Central Command Commander General Michael Kurilla (C) visiting a camp, which holds relatives of suspected ISIS group fighters, in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province. (Photo by US Central Command (CENTCOM) / AFP)
A handout picture released by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 11, 2023, shows US Central Command Commander General Michael Kurilla (C) visiting a camp, which holds relatives of suspected ISIS group fighters, in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province. (Photo by US Central Command (CENTCOM) / AFP)
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US General Warns of ISIS ‘Army in Detention’ in Syria, Iraq

A handout picture released by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 11, 2023, shows US Central Command Commander General Michael Kurilla (C) visiting a camp, which holds relatives of suspected ISIS group fighters, in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province. (Photo by US Central Command (CENTCOM) / AFP)
A handout picture released by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) on March 11, 2023, shows US Central Command Commander General Michael Kurilla (C) visiting a camp, which holds relatives of suspected ISIS group fighters, in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province. (Photo by US Central Command (CENTCOM) / AFP)

A US general warned Saturday that the Middle East faces the looming threat of an ISIS group "army in detention", after visiting prisons and camps in northeastern Syria holding suspected extremists and their relatives.

General Michael Kurilla, head of the US military's Central Command, visited several detention facilities this week, including Ghwayran prison in the city of Hasakeh, where hundreds were killed after extremists stormed it early last year, a CENTCOM statement said.

"In visiting the detention facility, I saw the looming threat posed by this group of detained ISIS fighters," Kurilla said in the statement.

"Between those detained in Syria and Iraq it is a veritable 'ISIS army in detention'. If freed, this group would pose a great threat regionally and beyond," he added.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by a US-led coalition, spearheaded the fight against ISIS in Syria, driving the group from its last redoubt in the country in 2019.

Tens of thousands of people, including relatives of alleged extremists, have been detained in the years since in camps run by the Kurdish authorities, including the notorious Al-Hol camp, where around 10,000 foreigners are held.

Kurdish authorities have repeatedly called on countries to repatriate their citizens, but foreign governments have allowed only a trickle to return home, fearing security threats and domestic political backlash.

SDF commanders and administrators at Ghwayran prison described the detainees as "unrepentant, subject to further radicalization to violence, and a ticking time bomb", CENTCOM said.

Kurilla also visited the Kurdish-run camps of Roj and Al-Hol, where relatives of suspected extremists are held.

Children in Al-Hol "are in daily danger of indoctrination to violence", CENTCOM said, adding that teenagers with foreign parents "expressed a desire to return to their country of origin".

Kurilla urged the "repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration of the camp residents back into their countries and communities of origin", calling Al-Hol a "flashpoint of human suffering".

The extremists were ousted from Iraqi territory in 2017 but retain sleeper cells in desert and mountain hideouts in both Syria and neighboring Iraq.

Suspected ISIS militants killed three truffle hunters and kidnapped at least 26 others in northern Syria on Saturday, a war monitor said.

The fight against the extremists "is a fight for security and stability of not only Syria and Iraq, but the entire region", Kurilla said.

"We absolutely cannot allow a resurgence of ISIS."



52 Palestinians Including Children Killed in Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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52 Palestinians Including Children Killed in Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Palestinians inspect the destruction at a makeshift displacement camp following a reported incursion a day earlier by Israeli tanks in the area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip on July 11, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including four children, hospital officials said Saturday. Also, 24 others were fatally shot on their way to aid distribution sites.

The children and two women were among at least 13 people who were killed in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli airstrikes pounded the area starting late Friday, officials in Al-Aqsa Martyr's Hospital said. Another four people were killed in strikes near a fuel station, and 15 others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

The Israeli military said in a statement that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in the Gaza Strip, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional Hamas infrastructure sites. The military did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' request for comment on the civilian deaths.

The Hamas-led group killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and abducted 251. They still hold 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

US President Donald Trump has said that he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war. But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were no signs of a breakthrough.