Some of the foreign fighters who volunteered for Sunni jihadist groups in Syria, who Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa plans to recruit to his new army, have an extensive terrorist background and arrived in Syria as ISIS operatives.
Al-Sharaa has no intention of expelling the foreign fighters, numbering around 3,500, mostly Uyghurs (Chinese Muslims) and others from Chechnya and Central Asia.
Unfortunately, this puzzling step of recruiting thousands of terrorists into the new army has received Washington’s blessing.
The second worrying development is that the United States plans to significantly reduce its military presence in northern Syria, closing most of its bases. This means Kurdish autonomy is on the verge of losing its American protection.
In turn, Turkey will be freer to intervene in northern Syria, where it has already seized thousands of square kilometers during the civil war. This will also weaken the Kurds’ ability to continue fighting ISIS remnants in the Syrian desert.
The third concerning piece of news is the possible closure of the massive ISIS detention camp in Syria.
ISIS Is still here and strong
Most Israelis have never heard of the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, just 14 kilometers from the Iraqi border, and are unaware of how dangerous it could be for every Israeli or Jew worldwide. This is the last significant remnant of ISIS.
The massive detention camp, spanning 2.9 square kilometers, houses the families of ISIS members who survived after the Islamic State’s defeat in 2017.
Most of the camp’s residents, numbering nearly 40,000, are women, teenagers, and children (many of whom were probably never officially counted).
Simple math shows that if they were born at the start of the ISIS state (2014–2017), they’re now 9 to 11 years old. The Kurdish militia in Hasakah province currently guards the camp. However, under the Trump administration, the US gradually withdrew its support for maintaining the camp, leaving the burden on the Kurds.
The children in al-Hol camp have no schools and have been neglected for years. The only education they receive is from their mothers, the ISIS women who make up the majority there. In other words, we are talking about the next generation of global jihadist terrorism.
A camp of horror
Kurdish militias occasionally raid the camp, uncovering horrifying realities: Dormant ISIS cells, punishments meted out by ISIS women against “infidels,” and more. Recently, Yazidi women, an Iraqi sect that suffered brutal persecution by ISIS, were found chained and held as slaves in the prisoners’ tents. In fact, ISIS women in al-Hol are the ones keeping the ideological flame of the terror organization alive. As expected, they are covered in black burqas, making it impossible to see even their faces.
According to estimates, about 12,000 Syrian refugees and 14,000 Iraqis live in al-Hol. There are reportedly more than 6,800 ISIS women from roughly 60 countries. Journalists who visited the camp tried to interview some of the teenagers; however, residents did not cooperate: The children and teens would simply raise their index fingers and shout “Allahu Akbar,” declaring the journalists to be infidels, even though some of the reporters were Muslims themselves.
A handful of women who agreed to be interviewed said, “The Islamic State will exist forever ‘until Judgment Day’” and that they support the punishment of “infidels” who, in their view, fail to adhere to Islamic law, including beheadings. The most vocal among them appeared to be Iraqi in origin.
A chance at freedom?
The collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024 has given ISIS prisoners a new opportunity. Currently, talks are underway between the Kurdish administration and President al-Sharaa’s regime about integrating the Kurdish militia in northern Syria into the new Syrian army. Part of the deal includes transferring responsibility for the al-Hol camp to Damascus, and that’s where the real problem starts.
It’s important to remember that al-Sharaa's men now control Syria, including fighters from the jihadist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra Front), whose ideology is only slightly different from that of ISIS. Al-Joulani’s plan is to establish a sort of Islamic entity based on Sharia law.
Recently, al-Sharaa formed a government largely composed of his own loyalists and members of his organization. Particularly troubling was a statement last week from Nur al-Din al-Baba, a spokesman for Syria’s Interior Ministry, after a government delegation visited al-Hol. He said the regime would work to release Syrian prisoners in al-Hol to “reintegrate them into Syrian society.” Presumably, he was referring to the 12,000 Syrian ISIS detainees, but what about the others?
The Iraqi ISIS prisoners fear returning home, where many face trials and execution by hanging. ISIS members from other Arab countries and Europe are facing staunch refusals from their own governments to accept them back, for obvious security reasons. The only remaining option seems to be to try to “reintegrate” them too into the new Syria.
Manpower for the new regime
After their so-called “re-education,” these ISIS prisoners could become the manpower for al-Sharaa’s new regime — recruited into the police and army, which are still committing atrocities against the Alawite minority in northwestern Syria and threatening the Druze in the south.
It’s important to remember that during the Syrian civil war just a decade ago, fighters often moved between the two rival groups — from ISIS to al-Sharaa's Hay’at and vice versa — due to ideological and geographical proximity in northern Syria.
Now, ISIS prisoners from al-Hol and jihadists from other Islamist opposition groups may fill the ranks of the new Syrian security forces. Those foreign prisoners who are released might try to return to their home countries and become ticking time bombs of global jihadist terror.
The only way to confront this threat is through effective monitoring of the Syrian regime’s actions, especially regarding the education system that ISIS children will enter. For the United States, the West, and moderate Arab states, democratization, education for liberal values, and religious tolerance must be essential conditions for lifting sanctions.
Sadly, the US president announced the lifting of sanctions too early, under pressure from Turkey and Qatar, both of which support terrorism. In the current Syrian context, lifting sanctions means encouraging an undemocratic regime that promotes jihadist values and oppresses minorities. We got rid of the Assad regime, which supported Iran, only to inherit Joulani’s “Sunnistan.” Syria’s future now rests in American hands, and the current direction is far from optimistic.
Dr. Yaron Friedman is a graduate of the Sorbonne in Paris, a researcher, lecturer, and teacher of Arabic in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Haifa. He is the author of *The Alawites in Syria: Faith, History, and Identity* (Brill 2010) and runs the newsletter “This Week in the Middle East.”