Syrian forces take control of prison housing IS members after Kurdish fighters evacuate

RAQQA, Syria (AP) — Syrian government forces took control Friday of a prison housing members of the Islamic State group in the north of the country, after hundreds of Kurdish fighters who were guarding the facility evacuated the area as part of a recent deal.

Syria’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the government’s prisons authority is now in charge of al-Aqtan prison, north of the northern city of Raqqa, and that the files of the detainees are being reviewed.

Al-Aqtan is the second prison to come under government control after being abandoned by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. Syrian troops entered Shaddadeh prison on Monday near the border with Iraq, from where 120 IS detainees managed to flee amid the chaos. Most of them have been recaptured, state media said.

Syria's interim government signed an agreement last March with the SDF for it to hand over territory and to eventually merge its fighters with government forces. In early January, a new round of talks failed to make progress over the merger, leading to renewed fighting between the two sides. A new version of the accord was signed over the weekend, and a four-day ceasefire declared on Tuesday.

The move into al-Aqtan prison comes two days after the U.S. military said that it has started transferring some of the 9,000 IS detainees held in more than a dozen detention centers in northeast Syria controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, in northeast Syria.

The SDF was the main force fighting IS in Syria over the past decade, and in March 2019 captured the last sliver of land that the extremists held.

During the battles against IS, thousands of extremists and tens of thousands of women and children linked to them were taken and held in prisons and at the al-Hol camp, which government forces took control of on Wednesday.

The capture of al-Aqtan prison came after government forces surrounded it from all sides earlier this week during a two-week offensive against the SDF. Raqqa governor Abdul-Rahman Salama said there are up to 2,000 detainees at al-Aqtan, but it wasn't immediately clear how many of them are linked to IS.

Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Abdul-Qader Tahan visited the prison on Friday to see the conditions of the detention center and the detainees, state television reported.

Negotiations had been ongoing for days, after which a deal was reached to open a corridor for the nearly 800 SDF fighters to head west toward the region of Kobani, which is still controlled by the U.S.-backed group.

Hundreds of people gathered on the sides of snow-covered streets in Kobani waving their hands and some flashing victory signs to welcome the fighters who arrived in vans, buses and pickup trucks. Some people opened fire in the air to welcome the fighters who had been under siege for days.

The SDF said in a statement that with the support of the U.S.-led coalition, the force has completed the transfer of its fighters assigned to securing al-Aqtan Prison “to safe locations.” The SDF said that al-Aqtan prison holds detainees from the IS “terrorist organization.”

The fighters arrived in Kobani as the region is under siege by government forces from three sides, while the border crossing with Turkey from the north remains closed as it has been for years.

Kobani resident Mihemet Bozan told The Associated Press that he had to drive 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from the town to be able to get a cellular signal. Amid freezing temperatures, there is no fuel for heating and the area is running out of diesel needed by bakeries to make bread, he said.

“Conditions are very difficult,” Bozan said, adding that bakeries that are working have long lines of people waiting. “Within a week people will end up without food or water,” he said referring to the siege.

The government push into northeast Syria in early January led thousands of mainly Kurds to flee into the northeastern province of Hassakeh, which has a large Kurdish community.

A four-day ceasefire was declared Tuesday night, after several previous truces collapsed. As part of a deal signed Sunday by interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, the U.S.-backed force should merge into the ministries of defense and interior.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said in a statement on Tuesday that the SDF’s role as Syria’s primary anti-IS force “has largely expired” since the new government is “both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities.” The U.S. isn't interested in “prolonging a separate SDF role,” he said.

On Wednesday, U.S. and Iraqi officials said that Iraq had requested that IS detainees be transferred to Iraq, and Washington accepted the idea. The Syrian government welcomed the deal to transfer the prisoners after it was made public on Wednesday saying it will help in the process.

Representatives from the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR were able to gain access to al-Hol camp, which houses family members of accused IS militants, on Friday along with Syrian government officials, after “a three-day interruption caused by the volatile security situation” inside the sprawling facility, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

SDF fighters had been guarding the camp but abandoned their posts amid this week's fighting. Government forces have now taken over security at the camp.

Haq said U.N. trucks carrying bread entered the camp and the U.N. has been able to partially restore water supplies with help from UNHCR and the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF.

He said the U.N. refugee agency aims to manage the camp.

As for the situation in Kobani, Haq said U.N. humanitarian officials report that all roads connecting to the city are currently closed and “interruptions to the power supply, water and Internet are hampering people’s access to basic services.”

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Associated Press journalists Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

Syrian government forces drive inside the al-Aqtan prison after taking control of it from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, in Raqqa, northeastern Syria, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Syrian government forces walk in the al-Aqtan prison after taking control of it from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, in Raqqa, northeastern Syria, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Syrian government forces stand guard at the al-Aqtan prison after taking control of it from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, in Raqqa, northeastern Syria, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

An aerial view shows the al-Aqtan prison after government troops took control of it from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF, in Raqqa, northeastern Syria, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Syrian government forces stand guard outside Al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of Raqqa, northeastern Syria, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, as negotiations are underway between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces over a withdrawal from the prison. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Lindsey Vonn’s father said Monday that the American superstar will no longer race if he has any influence over her decision and that she will not return to the Winter Olympics after breaking her leg in the downhill over the weekend.

“She’s 41 years old and this is the end of her career,” Alan Kildow said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “There will be no more ski races for Lindsey Vonn, as long as I have anything to say about it.”

Kildow and the rest of Vonn’s family — a brother and two sisters, too — have been with Vonn while she is being treated at a hospital in Treviso following her fall and helicopter evacuation from the course in Cortina on Sunday.

The hospital late Sunday released a statement saying Vonn had undergone surgery on her left leg and the U.S. Ski Team said she was in stable condition. There have not been other updates since.

Kildow declined to comment on details of Vonn’s injuries, but he did address how she was doing emotionally.

“She’s a very strong individual,” Kildow said. “She knows physical pain and she understands the circumstances that she finds herself in. And she’s able to handle it. Better than I expected. She’s a very, very strong person. And so I think she’s handling it real well.”

Kildow — a former ski racer himself who taught his daughter to race — said he slept in his daughter’s hospital room overnight.

“She has somebody with her — or multiple people with her — at all times,” Kildow said. “We’ll have people here as long as she’s here.”

Kildow and the rest of Vonn’s family watched the crash from the finish area with all of the other spectators.

“First, the shock and the horror of the whole thing, seeing a crash like that,” Kildow said of what he felt watching the scene unfold. “It can be dramatic and traumatic. You’re just horrified at what those kinds of impacts have.

“You can go into a shock an emotional psychological shock,” he added. “Because it’s difficult to just accept what’s happened. But she’s well cared for. … And the USOC and the U.S. Ski team have a very, very top-notch doctor with her and she is being very well cared for here in Italy.”

Vonn raced the downhill despite tearing the ACL in her left knee nine days earlier in another crash.

“What happened to her had nothing to do with the ACL issue on her left leg. Nothing,” Kildow said. “She had demonstrated that she was able to function at a very high level with the two downhill training runs. … And she had been cleared by high level physicians to ski.”

Kildow said the crash was less a result of Vonn’s knee injury than the way she pushed the limits of her racing line to the point where she clipped a gate early in her run and got knocked out of control.

“There are times sometimes in any race, but especially in downhill, where you have to take a little speed off,” he said. “You can give yourself a little bit more leeway on the line so you don’t put yourself in a questionable position.”

Vonn, who holds the record of 12 World Cup victories in Cortina, returned to the circuit last season after nearly six years of retirement and after a partial titanium replacement surgery in her right knee. She won two downhills and finished on the podium in seven of the eight World Cup races that she finished this season — and came fourth in the other one.

“She won 84 World Cup races. And not many people do that,” Kildow said, referring to Vonn’s victory total, which place her second on the all-time women’s list behind teammate Mikaela Shiffrin’s record 108 wins.

“And there’s a hell of a lot of the difference between a speed race, a downhill especially, and a slalom,” Kildow added.

Vonn will not return to the Olympics to cheer on teammates or for anything else, Kildow said.

“No, she’s not that in kind of situation,” he said. “She will be going home at an appropriate point in time.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

United States' Lindsey Vonn's father Alan Kildow is interviewed ahead of an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Dampf)

United States' Lindsey Vonn crashes during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

FILE - United States' Lindsey Vonn poses with her career medals with her father Alan Kildow, in the finish area after the women's downhill race, at the alpine ski World Championships in Are, Sweden, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati, File)

United States' Lindsey Vonn is airlifted away after a crash during an alpine ski women's downhill race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Police officers stand at the doors of a buildin in Ca' Foncello Hospital in Treviso, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, where U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn is hospitalized with a broken leg after crashing during the women's downhill competition at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. (Paola Garbuio/LaPresse via AP)

FILE - United States' Lindsey Vonn, right, poses for photographs with her father Alan Kildow at the end of an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill race, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Jan. 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Dampf, File)