Re-emerging Threat: Inside Syria's Detainee Crisis Amidst IS Resurgence

Mon Nov 10 2025 23:17:37 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

As Islamic State attacks rise in northeastern Syria, thousands of detainees are held in overcrowded jails. New insights from former fighters and families reveal the precarious situation as IS reorganizes amid ongoing instability.

In northeastern Syria, Kurdish officials report a resurgence of the Islamic State group (IS) with a tenfold increase in attacks, amidst a complex humanitarian crisis involving thousands of detained fighters. Families of suspected IS members face dire conditions in makeshift camps, where many cling to the group’s ideology. The ramifications of the chaotic security situation sparked by the ousting of Bashar al-Assad persist, complicating efforts to maintain stability in the region.

In the complex mosaic of the new Syria, the old battle against the group calling itself Islamic State (IS) continues in the Kurdish-controlled northeast. It's a conflict that has slipped from the headlines - with bigger wars elsewhere.

Kurdish counter-terrorism officials have told the BBC that IS cells in Syria are regrouping and increasing their attacks.

Walid Abdul-Basit Sheikh Mousa was obsessed with motorbikes and finally managed to buy one in January. The 21-year-old only had a few weeks to enjoy it. He was killed in February fighting against IS in northeastern Syria.

Walid was so keen to take on the extremists that he ran away from home, aged 15, to join the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They brought him back because he was a minor, but accepted him three years later.

Generations of his extended family gathered in the yard of their home in the city of Qamishli to tell us about his short life. I see him everywhere, said his mother, Rojin Mohammed. He left me with so many memories. He was very caring and affectionate.

Walid was one of eight children, and the youngest of the boys. He could always get around his mum. When he wanted something, he would come and kiss me, she recalls. And say 'can you give me money so I can buy cigarettes?'

The young fighter was killed during days of battle near a strategic dam - his body found by his cousin who searched the front lines. Through tears, his mother calls for revenge against IS.

They broke our hearts, she says. We buried so many of our young. May Daesh (IS) be wiped out completely, she says. I hope not one of them is left.

Instead, the Islamic State Group is recruiting and reorganizing - according to Kurdish officials, taking advantage of a security vacuum after the ousting of Syria's long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad last December.

There's been a 10-fold increase in their attacks, says Siyamend Ali, a spokesman for the People's Protection Units (YPG) - a Kurdish militia, which has been fighting IS for over a decade and is the backbone of the SDF.

They benefited from the chaos and got a lot of weapons from warehouses and depots (of the old regime). They have graduated from hit-and-run operations to attacking checkpoints and planting landmines.

Current estimates suggest around 8,000 suspected IS fighters from 48 countries, including the UK and the US, remain locked in a network of prisons in the northeast. These individuals, held indefinitely without trial or conviction, pose a significant security challenge as IS becomes increasingly active.

The largest jail for IS suspects is al-Sina in the city of Al Hasakah - ringed by high walls and watch towers. Detainees, once with immense power, appear defeated, confined to thin mattresses in small cells.

Conditions are dire, with tuberculosis rampant—a disease that looms over detainees held indefinitely. Some prisoners still sustain influence and operate within the prison structure, leading operations and providing guidance based on their extremist beliefs.

Meanwhile, Kurdish authorities grapple with the fate of the families of these detainees, with around 34,000 living in sprawling tent camps that some human rights groups classify as war crimes. Veiled women and children linger in the desolate landscape of the Roj camp, reminiscent of prisons, where life is punctuated by hardship and the lingering ideology of IS.

As tensions rise, the Kurdish-led forces maintain a watchful eye, aware that sleeper cells continue to infiltrate the region, representing a renewed threat to peace and stability in Syria.