The UN said it was taking over the management of vast camps in Syria housing tens of thousands of women and children linked to ISIS, after the rapid retreat of the Kurdish-led forces that had guarded the sites for years.
More than 10,000 ISIS members, most of whom are set to be transferred to Iraq, along with tens of thousands of women and children, have been held for years in about a dozen prisons and detention camps in Syria, guarded by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The SDF has rapidly retreated this week after clashes with Syrian government forces, raising concerns about security at prisons and humanitarian conditions at the camps, especially Al Hol, which is one of the biggest in Syria.
Syrian government forces had established a security perimeter around the camp and teams from the UN refugee agency and Unicef reached it on Wednesday, officials said.
"UNHCR – which has taken over camp management responsibilities – is actively co-ordinating with the Syrian government to urgently resume the safe delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance," senior UN aid official Edem Wosornu told the Security Council.
UN officials had not yet been able to enter because "the situation in the camp remains rather tense and volatile, with reports of looting and burning", UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. He said the Syrian government had expressed a willingness to provide security and support for UNHCR and aid groups.
On Tuesday, the US military’s Central Command said it had launched a mission to move thousands of ISIS prisoners from north-eastern Syria to Iraq, in a stunning development that came after Kurdish forces rapidly lost ground in clashes with Syrian government forces.
The US operation began with the transfer of 150 ISIS fighters from a detention centre in Hasakah to a “secure location” in Iraq, Centcom said. It added that “up to 7,000 ISIS detainees could be transferred from Syria to Iraqi-controlled facilities”.
Hours after the announcement, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said it would "begin taking the proper legal measures against the defendants who are handed over and placed in the relevant correctional institutions”.
About 19,000 Iraqis have already been repatriated from camps in Syria, with fewer than 5,000 remaining, said an Iraqi official involved in the case. “Our priority is to bring back the remaining Iraqis. It is impossible for us to take detainees of other nationalities, given the lack of infrastructure, security risks and shortage of funds.”
The Iraqi government has asked relevant ministries to “increase pressure on other countries, especially EU states, to take back their citizens”, he told The National.
The sudden move to transfer ISIS members, thousands of whom are Iraqi citizens, reflects the dangers associated with the background of some Syrian government troops, who previously belonged to extremist groups.
The decision was heavily influenced by the killing of two US soldiers and an American interpreter in Palmyra at the hands of an ISIS sympathiser embedded in the government forces. The incident prompted Washington and its Syrian partners to launch a sweeping campaign against extremist cells in Syria.
A regional Arab security source specialising in Syria told The National that American distrust of the SDF and pro-government forces was behind the decision to move ISIS prisoners from eastern Syria to Iraq.
On Friday, US envoy Tom Barrack thanked the Iraqi government for its "exceptional leadership within the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and for its steadfast willingness to help safeguard the international community from the enduring threat posed by ISIS detainees".
After a meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani, Mr Barrack said Baghdad’s "vital contributions to promoting stability in Syria, and across the broader region, are indispensable".
He also met with SDF chief Mazloum Abdi and stressed his country's "strong support for and commitment to advancing the integration process" of Kurdish-led troops into the government forces. Earlier this week, Mr Barrack said the mandate for the SDF to fight against ISIS had expired after 10 years of US support.
