NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

The Kurds' prisons and detention camps for Isis members, explained

By Charlie Savage
New York Times·
14 Oct, 2019 12:20 AM7 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Children at the Kurdish-run Al Hol detention camp in northern Syria in March. Some 70,000 people have been living in increasingly dire conditions there. Photo / Ivor Prickett, The New York Times

Children at the Kurdish-run Al Hol detention camp in northern Syria in March. Some 70,000 people have been living in increasingly dire conditions there. Photo / Ivor Prickett, The New York Times

As the Turkish invasion leads to deteriorating security in northern Syria, the custody of about 11,000 captive Isis fighters — and many thousands more detained Isis women and children — is in doubt.

The escalating chaos in northern Syria as Turkey presses forward with its attack on the United States' erstwhile Kurdish allies is raising fears about the fate of thousands of detainees from the Islamic State group, also known as Isis, that the Kurds have been holding in makeshift wartime prisons.

When announcing that he had cleared the way for the Turkish military operation in northern Syria, President Donald Trump insisted that Turkey must assume responsibility for the captured Islamic State fighters and their families — then said the United States was taking custody of the most dangerous ones. But with the Pentagon preparing to withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria, it is far from clear that either aspiration will happen.

What is going on in northern Syria?

The situation is deeply complicated. Turkey has launched an invasion against Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who were the primary US ally in Syria against Islamic State and who control northern Syria. Turkey has been fighting separatist Kurds inside its borders and considers the Syrian Kurds terrorists.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

READ MORE:
• Trump orders withdrawal of US forces from northern Syria, days after Pentagon downplays possibility
• Turkish army 'accidentally' bombs US special forces in Syria
• Video of ISIS brides 'trying to flee Syrian jail'
• Turkey launches offensive in northern Syria after US stands aside

The presence of US troops alongside the Kurds had helped to maintain a fragile peace. But since Trump told Turkey that it could begin an operation into Syria and that the United States would pull its forces back from a zone along the border, Turkey and an Arab Syrian militia have killed many Kurds — and may have deliberately fired near US forces, too. On Sunday, the Pentagon announced that Trump had ordered US forces out of northern Syria.

Meanwhile, President Bashar Assad of Syria, backed by Russia, controls the southern part of the country and wants to retake it all. On Sunday, the Kurds apparently struck a deal with the Syrian government, but its details — and what it would mean for detainees — were not yet clear.

Who are the Isis detainees?

The Syrian Democratic Forces has operated an archipelago of about half a dozen ad hoc wartime detention sites for captive Islamic State fighters, ranging from former schoolhouses in towns like Ain Issa and Kobani to a former Syrian government prison at Hasaka.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The prisons hold about 11,000 men, of whom about 9,000 are locals — Syrians or Iraqis — and about 2,000 come from 50 other nations whose home governments have been reluctant to repatriate them. Scores of those men are Europeans, from countries like Belgium, Britain, France and Germany, but far more come from other nations that are part of the Muslim world, like Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen.

The Kurds also operate more than a dozen camps for families displaced by the conflict that hold tens of thousands of people, many of them non-Syrian wives and children of Islamic State fighters. These include the giant Al Hol camp about 40km southeast of Hasaka, where some 70,000 people have been living in increasingly dire conditions, and a camp in Ain Issa.

Discover more

World

Why is Turkey fighting the Kurds in Syria?

13 Oct 04:30 AM
World

Military leaders fear they've seen this before. It ended in the Iraq War

10 Oct 07:11 PM
World

Hundreds of Isis supporters flee detention camp

13 Oct 07:18 PM
World

Kurds strike deal with Assad and Syria, bringing Russia into the picture

14 Oct 12:37 AM

Will Isis members go free in the chaos?

One fear was that the Kurds are redeploying guards out of the prisons and camps to help fight the Turks, making it easier for Islamic State members to break out. On Sunday, hundreds of Isis women and children apparently were permitted to leave a section of the displaced-persons camp in Ain Issa where they had been detained, amid Turkish airstrikes that threatened their safety. It is not clear whether any male fighters have yet escaped the prisons.

Residents of Akcakale gather near the border to watch plumes of smoke during a Turkish military offensive into the Syrian border town of Tel Abyad. Photo / Mauricio Lima, The New York Times
Residents of Akcakale gather near the border to watch plumes of smoke during a Turkish military offensive into the Syrian border town of Tel Abyad. Photo / Mauricio Lima, The New York Times

The "worst-case scenario" is that the Kurds are so frustrated and angered by the United States' action that "they decide to release wholesale some of the detainees," said Christopher P. Costa, a former senior director for counterterrorism on Trump's National Security Council who now heads the International Spy Museum.

Might Turkey or the Assad government take custody of Isis prisoners?

The White House said Turkey would "now be responsible for all Isis fighters in the area captured over the past two years." But Turkey has given no public sign that it has agreed to take over that headache.

"It's hard to imagine Turkey has the capacity to handle securely and appropriately the detainees long held by the Syrian Kurds — and that's if Turkey even genuinely intends to try," said Joshua A. Geltzer, a former senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council in the Obama administration.

It is also possible that the Syrian government could end up taking over some of the prisons as a result of a deal between the Kurds and the Assad regime. But it was not clear whether there was any plan for a controlled transfer of authority and responsibility amid the fast-moving events.

Didn't Trump say the United States had already gotten the very worst Isis detainees out of Syria?

Yes, but that was largely untrue.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

On Wednesday, as the chaos was intensifying in northern Syria, Trump made reassuring remarks to reporters, disclosing that the United States was taking custody of the worst Islamic State detainees to ensure that they would not escape.

"We are taking some of the most dangerous Isis fighters out," Trump said. "We've taken them out and we're putting them in different locations where it's secure. In addition, the Kurds are watching. And if the Kurds don't watch, then Turkey is going to watch because they don't want those people out any more than we do."

A 1960s-era government prison in Hasaka, Syria, that the Syrian Democratic Forces has used to detain members of Isis. Photo / Charlie Savage, The New York Times
A 1960s-era government prison in Hasaka, Syria, that the Syrian Democratic Forces has used to detain members of Isis. Photo / Charlie Savage, The New York Times

He added: "But we have taken a certain number of Isis fighters that are particularly bad. And we've wanted to make sure that nothing happened with them, with respect to getting out. And I think we're doing a great job."

But even though Trump spoke in the past tense, as if that operation had been carried out, it was instead largely aspirational — and now appears increasingly unlikely.

What really happened?

The United States got only two high-value detainees out — far short of its goal.

The military had been making contingency plans to get a list of about five dozen of the highest-priority detainees from that group out of northern Syria since December, when Trump first announced that he would withdraw troops from the country before his administration slowed down that plan, one official said.

Smoke billows from fires on targets in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, caused by bombardment by Turkish forces. Photo / AP
Smoke billows from fires on targets in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, caused by bombardment by Turkish forces. Photo / AP

After Trump's abrupt green light to Turkey, the military tried to carry out that aspiration. And special operations forces Wednesday managed to take custody of two British men believed to be half of an Isis cell that tortured and killed Western hostages and who are now being held at a US base in Iraq.

But after the Kurds acquiesced to those two transfers, they stopped cooperating with the United States in anger at what they saw as Trump's betrayal, according to US officials. The Pentagon's decision Sunday to pull US forces out of northern Syria means the opportunity to take custody of additional Islamic State prisoners — even if the Kurds were to decide to start cooperating again — is rapidly evaporating, the officials said.

Who are the two Britons the United States did manage to take custody of?

They are El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey — two of the so-called Beatles, a four-member cell of British ISIS members who abused Western hostages, including James Foley, the US journalist beheaded in August 2014 for an Isis propaganda video. Another cell member, who was later killed in a drone strike, is believed to have killed Foley.

The Justice Department intends to eventually bring the two to the Eastern District of Virginia for trial, but a court fight in Britain has delayed that transfer. The lawsuit is over whether the British government may share evidence with the United States without an assurance that US prosecutors will not seek the death penalty.


Written by: Charlie Savage

Photographs by: Ivor Prickett, Charlie Savage and Mauricio Lima

© 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from World

Premium
World

Opinion: Trump's rise and return centred on power and retribution

17 Jun 07:00 PM
Premium
World

New video reveals how predators interact with bats, increasing virus risk

17 Jun 07:00 PM
World

G7 summit: Canada promises billions in aid to Ukraine as US shifts focus to Middle East

17 Jun 06:50 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Premium
Opinion: Trump's rise and return centred on power and retribution

Opinion: Trump's rise and return centred on power and retribution

17 Jun 07:00 PM

New York Times: He's using the government more openly against perceived enemies now.

Premium
New video reveals how predators interact with bats, increasing virus risk

New video reveals how predators interact with bats, increasing virus risk

17 Jun 07:00 PM
G7 summit: Canada promises billions in aid to Ukraine as US shifts focus to Middle East

G7 summit: Canada promises billions in aid to Ukraine as US shifts focus to Middle East

17 Jun 06:50 PM
Trump says the US won’t kill Iran’s supreme leader ‘for now’, as he demands Tehran’s surrender
live

Trump says the US won’t kill Iran’s supreme leader ‘for now’, as he demands Tehran’s surrender

17 Jun 06:30 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP