Syrian government forces have taken control of al-Aqtan prison, as SDF fighters withdraw from the northeastern city of Raqqa under a ceasefire agreement.
Published on January 23, 2026
The Syrian government says it has taken control of al-Aqtan prison, housing many ISIL (ISIS) detainees in the northeastern city of Raqqa, after Kurdish-led SDF fighters retreated. Under the Armistice Agreement.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement on Telegram on Friday that officials from the Prisons and Correctional Facilities Administration have taken control of a prison in the former SDF stronghold of Raqqa and have begun investigating the conditions of prisoners and their records, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
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The capture of the prison and the cessation of hostilities in Raqqa followed four days. Armistice Agreement between the Syrian government and the SDF, which took effect Tuesday night. The ceasefire followed last week’s lightning firefight by the Syrian army in which they recaptured large swathes of territory held by the SDF.
Convoys of buses and cars carrying more than 1,000 SDF soldiers were seen leaving Raqqa, as Syrian forces gave them safe passage west to the Kurdish-majority city of Kobane on the border with Turkey.
The Syrian Army’s Operations Authority said that in accordance with the cease-fire agreement, units have begun the transfer of SDF elements from al-Aqtan prison and its surroundings to the city of Ain al-Arab east of Aleppo in Raqqa Governorate, SANA reported.
Filled the security gap
Reporting from Raqqa, Al Jazeera’s Zayn Basrawi said the Syrian army had “very quickly” filled the power vacuum left by the retreating SDF forces and had begun to dismantle and dismantle the remaining munitions in the prison.
“They have captured this prison with relative ease,” he said, describing the developments in Raqqa as “a rare occasion where the SDF and the Syrian army … have cooperated and they have done it successfully”.
“This is the first time I can remember covering this story over the last two weeks that they have admitted to working together to secure safe passage for SDF fighters,” he said.
After the commotion, calm was restored
“This was not the case here 24 hours ago,” he said, noting that the situation in the jail, the site of clashes in recent days, was now “calm”.
An Al Jazeera team reporting from outside the prison on Thursday saw chaotic scenes as a large crowd of civilians pushed over barricades manned by Syrian soldiers while SDF soldiers remained inside.
A soldier told Al Jazeera that Syrian government forces were waiting to see if they needed to retake the prison by force.
Basrawi said civilians were trying to get to the prison through barricades that had detained their relatives inside, some of whom had not been heard from in days of unrest.
Some claimed that their relatives were unjustly detained by the SDF.
“My son was visiting his relatives in Hasaka,” said a man named Mohammad Ali. “The SDF detained him at a checkpoint because he was carrying a photo of Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara.”
Amid scenes of chaos outside the prison on Wednesday, gunshots could be heard in the distance, Al Jazeera teams on the ground said.
Meanwhile, U.S. planes sent by CENTCOM began flying ISIL detainees from northeastern Syria into Iraq, as part of an effort to secure thousands of suspected fighters amid concerns about instability in Kurdish-run prisons.
