Northeastern Syria’s IS Prison Map and the Hidden Threat

Across northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) manage a sprawling and precarious network of approximately 20 prisons and detention centers holding between 8,500 and 10,500 captured Islamic State fighters and affiliates from various nationalities.

This network includes major facilities like Ghweran Prison in Hasakah, which houses about 5,000 detainees, alongside other critical sites in Shaddadi, Derik, and the Al-Aqtan facility in Raqqa, each holding thousands more, plus numerous smaller scattered centers.

The inmate population consists of hardened veterans and prominent IS figures, with foreign nationals making up a significant majority, creating what Kurdish authorities have repeatedly warned is a “latent security time bomb.”

The sheer scale of this detained terrorist army means that if any of these facilities were to fall out of SDF control due to military assault or collapse—a growing risk amid recent clashes—it could trigger a catastrophic mass jailbreak, instantly re-arming IS and posing a severe renewed threat to regional and global security.