Erbil, Iraq — CBS News found empty cells and abandoned orange jumpsuits on Monday inside a prison in northeast Syria that, until days ago, held suspected ISIS militants. The incident has highlighted lingering security concerns for Washington in the wake of Syria’s brutal civil war.
Syria’s Interior Ministry accused the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of allowing about 120 ISIS detainees to escape from the Al-Shaddadi prison — which is less than two miles from an American military base — during attempts by government forces to seize control of the facility.
The SDF has denied allowing prisoners to flee, and the Syrian government later claimed that most of the escapees had been recaptured.
CBS News/Moawia Atrash
U.S. concerns, and a changing relationship with the Kurdish SDF
The SDF is an umbrella group of Kurdish forces that have held semiautonomous control over a significant area in northeast Syria for years. It proved to be a vital U.S. ally during the war against ISIS in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
Clashes between Syria’s relatively new post-war government — supported by some local tribes — and the SDF escalated last week in northeast Syria. The fighting follows two failed mediation attempts, led by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack.
The U.S. alliance with the SDF dates to 2014, when ISIS seized nearly a third of Syria and Iraq. Backed by U.S. airstrikes and other assistance from Washington and its partners, SDF fighters played a decisive role in dismantling ISIS’ self-declared Islamic State.
Following the collapse of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2024, the new Syrian government — led by Ahmad al-Shaara, a former Islamic militant who has since distanced himself from extremist groups — has managed to significantly improve relations with the U.S. He was even invited to visit the White House last year to meet Mr. Trump and, under his leadership, Syria has formally joined the Global Coalition against ISIS.
Both the SDF and the Syrian government are now U.S. partners, but deep, lingering disagreements between those two entities over Syria’s future governance and the SDF’s control of territory in the country have boiled over into clashes recently.
Making the complicated situation a potential risk for the U.S., the violence has flared up in Syria’s Raqqa and al-Hasakah provinces, where there are multiple prisons holding thousands of ISIS fighters — and also multiple bases used by American forces. A Pentagon official told CBS News in December that the U.S. had about 1,000 forces in Syria to counter ISIS.
A U.S. military source confirmed to CBS News that there’s a U.S. combat outpost near the al-Shaddadi prison, used largely for intelligence gathering and surveillance to protect American forces in the region.
CBS News/Moawia Atrash 
In a social media post on Tuesday, Ambassador Barrack said the emergence of the new government in Damascus had shifted “the rationale for the US-SDF partnership: the original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground has largely expired, as Damascus is now both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities, including control of ISIS detention facilities and camps.”
He urged the SDF to work with the government in Damascus and embrace “a pathway to full integration into a unified Syrian state with citizenship rights, cultural protections, and political participation — long denied under Bashar al-Assad’s regime, where many Kurds faced statelessness, language restrictions, and systemic discrimination.”
Barrack said the U.S. government remained focused on “ensuring the security of prison facilities holding ISIS prisoners, currently guarded by the SDF,” as well as facilitating talks between the SDF and the Syrian government to ensure “peaceful integration of the SDF and the political inclusion of Syria’s Kurdish population into a historic full Syrian citizenship.”
Rapidly changing control of thousands of ISIS prisoners and family members
Attacks by pro-government forces on SDF positions near the Al-Aqtan Prison in Raqqa, which holds nearly 1,000 ISIS detainees, have fueled concerns about a potential mass escape in recent days. The SDF claimed in a social media post on Tuesday that government forces were again attacking the prison with exploding drones and heavy gunfire.
SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami told CBS News the situation at al-Qatna was “extremely dangerous” and said if the government forces breached the facility, ISIS detainees could escape as they did at al-Shaddadi.
The greatest concern, however, is over the Ghwayran Prison in al-Hasakah, where thousands of hardened ISIS inmates are still being held. Over the past six years, Ghwayran has faced multiple riots and coordinated ISIS attacks aimed at freeing imprisoned members.
Shami said the situation at the prison was secure despite attack attempts by local ISIS sleeper cells on Tuesday. He said, however, that pro-government forces were massing about 15 miles south and east of the city of al-Hasakah, in preparation for a potential assault.
Beyond the prisons, fighting also reached the sprawling al-Hol refugee camp in al-Hasakah. The camp, long guarded by the SDF, has housed over 40,000 displaced people for a decade. Among them are the family members of detained and killed ISIS militants, many of them highly radicalized themselves and still loyal to the group.
Videos posted online showed pro-Syrian government forces entering the facility, and the Syria Interior Ministry said in a social media post that government forces had “begun securing the situation in Al-Hol camp” after the the withdrawal of the SDF, which it said had left “the camp without any guards, in an attempt to create chaos and allow those in the camp to escape.”
The Syrian presidency, meanwhile, was cited by Turkish and Arab news outlets as saying that a “mutual understanding” had been reached with the SDF regarding the future of al-Hasakah province.
In a statement, the SDF announced its agreement to a ceasefire in the province, but Shami said pro-government forces continued attacking the group’s positions in al-Hasakah.