ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Top Iraqi officials on Tuesday warned that the Islamic State (ISIS) remains a serious threat to regional and global security, asserting that coordination between Baghdad and Iraq’s Kurdistan Region has secured the country’s borders amid instability in neighboring Syria.
Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji said ISIS is taking advantage of security gaps caused by the escalating conflict in Syria, where ISIS prisoners escaped amid clashes between Kurdish forces and armed groups as the Syrian army seized Kurdish-held areas. Syria announced a four-day ceasefire to pause the fighting.
“We affirm that the threat posed by the terrorist organization ISIS continues to constitute a real danger to the security of the region and the world,” Araji wrote in a post on X.
He said ISIS is exploiting the instability in Syria and “security and humanitarian gaps” created by years of war and conflict, urging stronger international coordination to confront the group.
“Iraq calls for the unification of international and regional efforts to combat the terrorist organization ISIS in a comprehensive manner,” Araji said.
Those efforts must include “security coordination, support for political solutions, and addressing the root causes of extremism, in order to ensure the preservation of security and stability and the achievement of sustainable peace in the region and the world,” he said.
Araji's remarks came after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday announced they had withdrawn from the notorious al-Hol camp near the Iraqi border, following reports of “fierce clashes” with Damascus-affiliated armed groups in the area.
The military escalation by the Syrian army and allied factions against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria (Rojava) threatened to destabilize northeast Syria, where the SDF also said it lost control of al-Shaddadi prison holding “thousands of ISIS militants.” Other SDF-controlled prisons holding ISIS fighters were also coming under attack, the SDF said, raising fears that thousands of extremists could escape and threaten security in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
Located in southeast Hasaka, al-Hol camp holds an estimated 25,000 people, nearly all of whom are women and children who lived under ISIS. Notorious for dire living conditions and holding radicalized individuals including the family members of ISIS fighters, experts and local officials have long warned the camp is a breeding ground for extremism. The camp was hosting over 4,000 Iraqis; another 20,000 returned and were reintegrated into local communities after attending deradicalization programs.
Emergency security meeting in Baghdad
On Tuesday, senior Iraqi officials held an emergency security meeting chaired by Iraqi Prime Minister and Army Commander Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Syria and regional threats, according to a statement by spokesperson for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) Sabah al-Numan.