{"id":198476,"date":"2026-01-29T03:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T03:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/can-syria-keep-the-world-safe-from-is-fighters-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T03:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T03:59:11","slug":"can-syria-keep-the-world-safe-from-is-fighters-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/can-syria-keep-the-world-safe-from-is-fighters-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Syria keep the world safe from IS fighters? – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Syrian government forces have seized swathes of territory from Kurdish groups \u2013 including camps holding IS prisoners. Will Christou<\/strong> reports on why this is a dangerous moment
Will Christou <\/strong>reports on Syria<\/a> for the Guardian and has been watching the new government\u2019s lightning-fast takeover of territory in the country\u2019s north-east. \u201cAll of a sudden, two major provinces that were under the Kurdish forces\u2019 control fell in a number of hours and Syrian government forces swept in,\u201d he tells Annie Kelly<\/strong>.
Soon the forces were at al-Hawl camp, the largest camp holding suspected Islamic State<\/a> militants \u2013 and then they were taking it over. In the chaos of the handover, more than 100 prisoners escaped and not all were found again. The camps have long been controversial: al-Hawl has an area filled with foreign fighters whose governments, for the most part, refuse to take them back. Then there are the women and children, some of whom have grown up at the camp. Thousands are languishing there, suspected but never tried.
\u201cThe first thing you notice about al-Hawl is how far away it is from everything else in the world,\u201d Christou says. \u201cIt is tucked away in a remote corner of northern Syria in the desert where there\u2019s no cell service and the roads are bumpy and pockmarked and really there\u2019s not much around. The second thing you notice about the camp is just how big it is. There\u2019s security guards everywhere, fences upon fences.\u201d
Running the camps, keeping the prisoners safe \u2013 and keeping the outside world safe from IS militants \u2013 is no easy task. \u201cI think the Syrian government is going to ask countries to take their nationals back,\u201d Christou says. \u201cBut they could be saddled with tens of thousands of suspected Isis fighters and members for years to come. And this is a government that is coming out of a 14-year civil war and doesn\u2019t have much money. If they\u2019re not vigilant, this could become a huge security issue, not only for Syria but for the entire region.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Syrian government forces have seized swathes of territory from Kurdish groups \u2013 including camps holding IS prisoners. Will Christou reports on why this is a dangerous momentWill Christou reports on Syria for the Guardian and has been watching the new government\u2019s lightning-fast takeover of territory in the country\u2019s north-east. \u201cAll of a sudden, two major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198477,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-198476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}