In brief
- The escapes occurred at al-Hol camp last month after the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.
- Al-Hol camp is near the Al-Roj camp where dozens of Australian women and children with alleged links to IS members are being held.
Syria has confirmed the mass escape of relatives of suspected members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group from the al-Hol camp last month following the withdrawal of Kurdish forces who had overseen the facility.
"When our forces arrived, they found cases of collective escapes due to the camp having been opened up in a haphazard manner," interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Al-Hol — the largest camp for relatives of suspected IS group members in north-eastern Syria — had been under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
This camp is not to be confused with al-Roj, also located in north-eastern Syria, where 34 Australian women and children allegedly related to IS fighters are being held.
Last month, Syrian troops drove Kurdish forces from swathes of the north, sparking questions over the fate of the IS group prisoners and their families.
Under pressure, the SDF withdrew from the camp on 20 January, with Syrian security forces taking control a few hours later.
"The SDF withdrew suddenly, without coordination and without informing" the Syrian authorities or the international anti-jihadist coalition beforehand, al-Baba said.
There was a "chaotic situation" after the Kurdish forces pulled out, he added, and "more than 138 breaches" have been discovered in the camp's 17km perimeter wall that allowed mass escapes.
After the Kurdish forces withdrew, thousands of women and children fled the camp to parts unknown.
The SDF said in a statement "the withdrawal of our forces was a direct result of the military attack ... targeting the camp and its surroundings by forces affiliated with Damascus".
The release of IS-linked families "occurred after the entry of Damascus-affiliated factions (into the camp) and involved their direct participation", it added.
Al-Hol housed 23,500 people, mostly Syrian and Iraqis, the ministry spokesman said.
Around 6,500 foreigners of 44 different nationalities lived in a high-security section of the camp.
Last week, Syrian authorities moved the families still at al-Hol to another site in the country's north.
Before the Kurdish forces withdrew, the United States military had transferred more than 5,700 detained IS group suspects from Syrian prisons to Iraq.
The US had previously announced it would transfer around 7,000 detainees.
The IS group swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of the IS group in the country in 2017, and the SDF ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected IS group members and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
It follows news last week of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's refusal to assist with the repatriation of 34 women and children in the nearby al-Roj camp.
Khalid Ibrahim, a Syrian Kurd serving as a senior official with the Foreign Relations Department of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, which oversees the camp where the cohort have lived for the last seven years, told SBS Kurdish that responsibility for their futures rests with Australia.
"Since they are Australian citizens, the Australian government is responsible."
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