U.S.-backed Syrian forces on edge amid concern ISIS could try to stage a comeback on heels of Assad’s ouster

Jap Syria — CBS Information was among the many first information retailers to talk on Thursday with Travis Timmerman, an American who was feared useless by household and associates, days after he was free of a infamous jail in Syria. He mentioned he had spent seven months jailed by the regime of now-ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad earlier than rebels broke down his cell door.

However he was simply one of many many hundreds of individuals locked up over half a century of iron-fisted rule by Assad, and his father earlier than him. Many stay lacking, and the insurgent forces, together with the households of those that’ve disappeared with out a hint, have mounted a herculean effort since Assad fled to Russia on Sunday to seek out those that vanished.

However there’s one group of prisoners that Syria’s still-evolving, rebel-led management desires to maintain behind bars. 5 years in the past, as U.S.-backed forces wrested management of land held for years by ISIS, CBS Information visited a jail the place the members of the terrorist group have been being held. This week, CBS Information returned to the jail in jap Syria. Guards mentioned it was nonetheless holding hundreds of ISIS militants, however they wouldn’t say precisely what number of.

The inmates got here to hitch the so-called Islamic State from all around the world, however for years they’ve been locked up — apparently indefinitely — with 20 or extra inmates to a cell.

Prisoner Hadi Alamelhud advised us by way of a small hatch in his cell door that he was a physician in Windsor, Canada, earlier than he got here to stay in ISIS’ self-declared Islamic “caliphate.” He mentioned he was captured six years in the past, and believed he ought to be allowed to return residence to Canada.

“All of us make errors, proper?” he advised CBS Information. “I remorse the error that I made. After all.”

Alamelhud mentioned he by no means fought for ISIS and that he solely got here as a physician, “for the individuals who have been within the place. However I’m thought-about as a part of the terrorist group.” 

He mentioned that, like most of his cellmates, he regretted coming to stay below the group, which he accepted was a terrorist group, and voiced optimism that he may sooner or later make it again residence.

He mentioned his message for the Canadian authorities could be: “Why haven’t they arrive? Why haven’t they requested about me?”

The jail is positioned in a part of jap Syria that’s been held by U.S.-backed forces for years. These largely Kurdish forces at present management round 1 / 4 of Syria, and the warden advised CBS Information the inmates haven’t been advised in regards to the collapse of the Assad regime, which was based mostly additional south within the capital Damascus, as a result of it could possibly be harmful.

“There could be disobedience,” he mentioned. “ISIS has been on the transfer lately, and this jail is necessary for them.”

It was solely about 5 years in the past that ISIS was defeated in Syria, with U.S. assist, and CBS Information was there to witness the seize of Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the Islamic State, a number of years earlier than that in 2017.

However ISIS remains to be lurking within the Syrian desert. It’s nonetheless a risk. In 2022, ISIS fighters attacked the jail, sparking a jailbreak and a bloody 10-day battle to regain management.

At a camp not removed from the jail, American-backed forces are holding members of the family — round 6,000 girls and kids — of ISIS fighters who have been killed or captured. Guards took CBS Information contained in the al-Hol camp in an armored automobile. They mentioned the safety scenario was deteriorating, as a result of in contrast to within the jail holding the male militants, phrase did unfold within the camp for households in regards to the fall of the Syrian regime. The guards mentioned that had given the ladies hope they could possibly be rescued.

One lady there advised us her husband was useless and that she’d been held on the camp for six years. Like so many on the facility, she was unrepentant about ISIS’ reign of brutality, and mentioned she nonetheless liked the group.

The U.S. navy has pummeled ISIS hideouts in Syria with airstrikes since Assad’s fall, decided to cease the terrorists from utilizing the collapse of the regime to stage a comeback.