It was a scenario US officials said could have exploded overnight. Nearly 6,000 ISIS fighters sitting in unstable northern Syria, guarded by forces stretched thin by fresh fighting. If those prisons cracked, the fallout would have been immediate.
“If these 6,000 or so got out and returned to the battlefield, that would basically be the instant reconstitution of ISIS,” a senior US intelligence official told Fox News Digital.
That risk drove a multi-week operation to transfer thousands of detainees from Kurdish-run facilities in Syria into Iraqi custody. The effort unfolded as clashes intensified across Syria, raising fears that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), responsible for securing the prisons, could lose control.
According to the official, concerns began mounting in late October when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard assessed that Syria’s political transition could spiral into disorder. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) dispatched officials to Syria and Iraq to open discussions with both the SDF and Baghdad about relocating what was repeatedly described as “the worst of the worst.”
By early January, fighting in Aleppo spread eastward, compressing timelines. “We saw this severe crisis situation,” the official said. Daily interagency coordination calls were launched. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was described as “managing the day to day” policy considerations, while ODNI led a working group aligning CENTCOM, diplomats and intelligence personnel.
Iraq, officials said, had strong incentive to act. A mass escape risked pushing seasoned ISIS fighters back toward its border. Iraqi leaders understood the stakes, recalling what one official described as a potential return to a “2014 ISIS is on our border situation once more.”
The US Embassy in Baghdad helped clear diplomatic hurdles. On the ground, US Central Command surged assets to execute the transfer. “Thanks to the efforts… moving in helicopters, moving in more resources, and then just logistically making this happen, we were able to get these nearly 6000 out in the course of just a few weeks,” the official said.
The detainees are now being held at a facility near Baghdad International Airport under Iraqi authority. FBI teams are conducting biometric enrollment, while US and Iraqi officials assess what intelligence can be declassified for prosecution purposes.
“What they were asking us for, basically, is giving them as much intelligence and information that we have on these individuals,” the official said. “So right now, the priority is on biometrically identifying these individuals.”
The operation did not include ISIS-linked women and children held in camps such as al-Hol. According to the official, control of that camp shifted to the Syrian government, which “appears… has decided to let them go free,” a development the official called “very concerning.”
For now, intelligence agencies continue monitoring the region after what officials say was a compressed operation aimed at preventing thousands of ISIS fighters from reentering the battlefield at once.
