US thwarted near-catastrophic prison break of 6,000 ISIS fighters in Syria

U.S. officials prevented catastrophic ISIS prison break in Syria by secretly moving nearly 6,000 "worst of the worst" detainees to Iraq in major operation. Syria US thwarted near-catastrophic prison break of 6,000 ISIS fighters in Syria CENTCOM helicopters and diplomatic efforts moved detainees to facility near Baghdad as Syrian chaos threatened jailbreak By Efrat Lachter , Trey Yingst Fox News Published February 18, 2026 8:34pm EST Facebook Twitter Threads Flipboard Comments Print Email Add Fox News on Google close Video ISIS could exploit Syria power shift, analyst warns As Kurdish control collapses in northeast Syria, analyst Brian Carter explains how poor detention records and rushed releases could give ISIS a window to regroup during the transition. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! EXCLUSIVE: This was the kind of prison break officials say could have changed the region, and perhaps even the world, overnight. Nearly 6,000 ISIS detainees, described by a senior U.S. intelligence official as "the worst of the worst," were being held in northern Syria as clashes and instability threatened the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the guards responsible for keeping the militants locked away and preventing a feared ISIS resurgence. U.S. officials believed that if the prisons collapsed in the chaos, the consequences would be immediate."If these 6,000 or so got out and returned to the battlefield, that would basically be the instant reconstitution of ISIS," the senior intelligence official told Fox News Digital. In an exclusive interview, the official walked Fox News Digital step by step through the behind-the-scenes operation that moved thousands of ISIS detainees out of Syria and into Iraqi custody, describing a multi-agency scramble that unfolded over weeks, with intelligence warnings, rapid diplomacy and a swift military lift. US MILITARY LAUNCHES AIRSTRIKES AGAINST ISIS TARGETS IN SYRIA, OFFICIALS SAY ISIS wives and children remain in "fragile" Syrian detention camps under Damascus control while male fighters transfer to Iraq, leaving detention crisis unresolved. ( Santiago Montag/Anadolu via Getty Image) The risk, the official explained, had been building for months. In late October, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard began to assess that Syria’s transition could tip into disorder and create the conditions for a catastrophic jailbreak.The ODNI sent the official to Syria and Iraq at that time to begin early discussions with both the SDF and the Iraqi government about how to remove what the official repeatedly described as the most dangerous detainees before events overtook them. Those fears sharpened in early January as fighting erupted in Aleppo and began spreading eastward. Time was running out to prevent catastrophe. "We saw this severe crisis situation," the official said.U.S. ANNOUNCES MORE MILITARY ACTIONS AGAINST ISIS: 'WE WILL NOT RELENT' A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holds an ISIL flag and a weapon on a street in the city of Mosul, June 23, 2014. (Reuters Photo) According to the source, the ODNI oversaw daily coordination calls across agencies as the situation escalated. The official said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was "managing the day to day" on policy considerations, while the ODNI drove a working group that kept CENTCOM, diplomats and intelligence officials aligned on the urgent question: how to keep nearly 6,000 ISIS fighters from slipping into the fog of war. The Iraqi government, the official said, understood the stakes. Baghdad had its own reasons to move quickly, fearing that if thousands of detainees escaped, they would spill across the border and revive a threat Iraq still remembers in visceral terms.The official described Iraq’s motivation bluntly: leaders recognized that a massive breakout could force Iraq back into a "2014 ISIS is on our border situation once more."The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the official said, played a pivotal role in smoothing the diplomatic runway for what would become a major logistical undertaking. Then came the physical lift. The official credited CENTCOM’s surge of resources to make the plan real on the ground, saying that "moving in helicopters" and other assets enabled detainees to be removed in a compressed timeframe."Thanks to the efforts… moving in helicopters, moving in more resources, and then just logistically making this happen, we were able to get these nearly 6000 out in the course of just a few weeks," the official said.ISIS FIGHTERS STILL AT LARGE AFTER SYRIAN PRISON BREAK, CONTRIBUTING TO VOLATILE SECURITY SITUATION A view of Hol Camp, where families linked to the Islamic State group are being held, in Hasakah province, Syria, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (Izz Aldien Alqasem/Anadolu via Getty Images) The SDF, he said, had been securing the prisons, but its attention was strained by fighting elsewhere, fueling U.S. fears that a single breach could spiral into a mass escape. Ultimately, detainees were transported into Iraq, where they are now held at a facility near Baghdad International Airport under Iraqi authority. The next phase, the officia