The organization Rights & Security International (RSI) published a report calling for the immediate repatriation of women and children held in the al-Hol and Roj detention camps in northeast Syria.

According to the report, an estimated 12,000 people from countries outside of Iraq and Syria, are being held in these camps (out of a total population of 60,000), and are experiencing conditions so harsh they amount "torture," on the basis of a presumed connection to ISIS. UN experts have described conditions in both al-Hol and Roj camps as a blight on the conscience of humanity, with no end in sight for the women and children in the camps. (Jurist)

ISIS fighters attacked a prison run by local Kurdish forces at Hasaka in northeast Syria, in an attempt to free thousands of their followers. The militants detonated a car bomb outside the facility and then unleashed hails of gunfire at the guards. The attack set off deadly clashes with the Kurdish militia that controls the area, killing dozens of people and allowing scores of prisoners to flee. (NYT)

Residents of Hasakah in northeastern Syria endured a fifth night of gunfire and explosions as US-backed Kurdish forces and ISIS militants fight for control of al-Sina'a prison. (VOA)

Kurdish forces on Jan. 26 announced they have fully recaptured a prison in Hasakah that had been attacked by ISIS fighters, ending the biggest jihadist assault in the country in three years.

More than 100 ISIS militants attacked Ghwayran (al-Sina'a), held by the autonomous Kurdish administration. Heavy fighting in and around the prison since it was taken on Jan. 20 killed 181 people, including 124 ISIS fighters, 50 Kurdish fighters and seven civilians. There was no immediate word on the fate of scores of minors held at the prison and caught in the crossfire. The death toll is epxected to rise.

The US backed the Kurdish forces with armored vehicles, attack helicopters and air-strikes.

Kurdish authorities are holding more than 12,000 suspected ISIS fighters and sympathizers with 50 different nationalities. They have long warned of jailbreaks since they do not have the capacity to hold, let alone place on trial, all the detainees. (AFP, NYT)

ISIS emir Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed during an overnight raid by US Special Forces in in northeastern Syria, the White House announced Feb. 3, ending a two-year hunt for the group's leader. Local rescue workers said women and children were among at least 13 people killed during the raid. President Biden said al-Qurayshi died when he exploded a bomb, killing himself and members of his family. (LWJ, NYT, AP)

As in the similar raid in which his predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in October 2019, al-Qurayshi was slain in an area of Idlib province controlled by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, the former Nusra Front).  

A-Qurayshi was apparently also known as Muhammad Sa'id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla. 

One child was killed Feb. 7 when guards at northeastern Syria's Kurdish-administrated al-Hol camp opened fire at residents who had apparently attacked them with rocks and knives. More than 60,000 people, including both victims and suspected supporters of ISIS, are being held at the camp. Many are foreign nationals whose home countries refuse to take them back. (TNH)

An ISIS bomb-maker who became a top figure in the organization, Hani Ahmed Al-Kurdi AKA "Wali of Raqqa," was captured in a raid in the Turkish-controlled zone of northern Syria, the Pentagon said. (WaPo, ABC News)

The Pentagon announced that it killed an ISIS leader, Maher al-Agal, in a drone strike outside Jindaris (Jindires), Aleppo governorate. Claims of no civilian casualties could not be immediately confirmed. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, al-Agal was a former prominent commander of the Islamic State group during its control of Raqqa and had since moved to the Afrin area in 2020, under Turkish occupation. He was most recently a commander in a Turkish-backed faction called Jaysh Al-Sharqiyyah.

Last month, a US drone strike in Idlib killed a senior leader of the Horas al-Din group, Abu Hamzah al Yemeni. (AP, CBS)

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has sentenced Mohammed Khalifa, a Canadian born in Saudi Arabia, to life in prison for his involvement with SIS as a media figure and fighter.

Khalifa pleaded guilty in December 2021 to "conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization." Khalifa traveled to Syria in 2013 and swore allegiance to then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Khalifa was recruited by the ISIS media department in 2014, where he worked until 2018. During this time, he served as the lead English narrator and translator for as many as 15 propaganda videos. In two of the most brutal ISIS videos, a masked Khalifa actually executed captured Syrian soldiers. Khalifa surrendered to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2019. The SDF delivered him to the FBI for criminal charges. (Jurist)

US-backed Kurdish fighters have arrested hundreds of suspected ISIS members in a weeks-long operation in northeast Syria's al-Hol camp, which also reportedly led to the release of several women captives. The camp is home to some 56,000 people, including both supporters and victims of the extremist group. (TNH)

A rare US helicopter raid on a Syrian village has killed an Islamic State arms smuggler, and two people have died in a separate air-strike, according to the US military.  The ISIS militant was hiding out in a government-held village in the country's northeast when he was killed on Oct. 6, the military said. It is the first known operation the US has carried out against the Islamic State in a zone held by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

Syrian state TV said it was carried out in the village of Muluk Saray in Hasakeh province.

US Central Command said the target was Rakkan Wahid al-Shammri, an ISIS member "known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and fighters." (Radio Australia)

The US is reportedly funding the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria to upgrade detention centers that hold thousands of suspected supporters of the so-called Islamic State. In January, ISIS fighters launched an attack on a prison in Hassakeh, raising fears of a militant resurgence—but also revealing that hundreds of minors were being detained in what Human Rights Watch called "deeply degrading and often inhuman conditions." (TNH)

ISIS said Nov. 30 that its leader Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi has been killed "in combat with enemies of God." US Central Command said Hashimi had been killed in an operation carried out by rebels of the Free Syrian Army in Daraa province of southern Syria in mid-October. It hailed his death as "another blow" to the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

Speaking in an audio message, ISIS said Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi has been named as the new leader. Qurashi refers to a tribe of the Prophet Mohammed, from whom ISIS leaders must claim descent. The previous ISIS chief, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, was killed in February this year in a US raid in Idlib province of northern Syria. (AFP)

The US military says a senior ISIS leader who was responsible for planning attacks in Europe has been killed in a strike in Syria. Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri died in an undisclosed location April 3, according to US Central Command. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights placed the location as a spot "on the Kaftin-Killi road in the northern countryside of Idlib." (BBC News, ANHA)

Presumed ISIS leader Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, was killed in Syria in an operation carried out by Turkey's MIT intelligence agency, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced April 29. (AFP)