Hundreds of fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrived on Friday in the city of Kobani (Ain al-Arab) in eastern Aleppo province, after the Syrian army facilitated their withdrawal from Raqqa to the Kurdish city on the Turkish border.
The development comes amid continued adherence to a ceasefire between the two sides, following the Syrian government’s takeover of large areas previously controlled by the SDF’s autonomous administration in Aleppo, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir Ezzor provinces in northern and eastern Syria.
Syria’s Interior Ministry announced on Friday that it had taken control of al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa after SDF forces withdrew from the facility.
The state news agency SANA quoted the ministry as saying that specialized units from the counterterrorism department and other relevant authorities had been deployed to secure the prison and maintain order inside it.
The Syrian army’s operations command said its units had begun transferring SDF elements from al-Aqtan prison and its surroundings to Kobani, escorting the withdrawing fighters to the city’s outskirts.
Kurdish news outlets later published images showing hundreds of SDF fighters and their vehicles arriving in snow-covered Kobani, where they were welcomed by large crowds of residents.
Al-Aqtan prison holds detainees linked to the ISIS group and had witnessed clashes in its vicinity between government forces and the SDF days earlier. The number of remaining detainees in the facility remains unclear.
Meanwhile, US Central Command announced on Wednesday the launch of a new mission to transfer up to 7,000 ISIS detainees to Iraq to ensure their continued detention in secure facilities.
It said 150 detainees had already been transferred from a prison in Hasakah to Iraq. Iraqi security officials told AFP that the first group included senior ISIS leaders of various nationalities, including Europeans, Asians and Arabs.
Under a comprehensive integration agreement reached on Sunday between Damascus and the SDF, responsibility for prisons holding ISIS detainees is expected to be transferred to the Syrian government.
Separately, the UN refugee agency said the volatile security situation at al-Hol camp, home to families of ISIS fighters, has hindered access to the site. The camp hosts about 24,000 people, including thousands of Syrians and foreign women and children from dozens of countries.
