The Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria said on Tuesday that its forces had to withdraw from a camp holding the relatives of thousands of suspected "Islamic State" jihadis in order to redeploy elsewhere. 

Syria's army, meanwhile, accused them of abandoning the al-Hol camp. 

"Our forces were compelled to withdraw from al-Hol camp and redeploy in the vicinity of cities in northern Syria that are facing increasing risks and threat," the SDF said in a statement. 

The Kurdish-led force accused the international community of "indifference" toward the guarding of IS prisoners and their relatives. The SDF said the international community had failed "to assume its responsibilities in this serious matter." 

Although the camp is not officially a prison, it is often referred to as such by its roughly 24,000 inhabitants, who for the most part are not permitted to leave. 

Rapid withdrawal despite supposed breakthrough in negotiations

Meanwhile, the Syrian army, according to state media, accused the Kurdish-led forces of "abandoning the guard of Al-Hol camp" and said the military "will cooperate with the internal security forces to enter the area and secure it."

The Interior Ministry said it was taking "all necessary measures in coordination and cooperation with the international coalition to maintain security and stability" after the SDF pullout.

The withdrawal from the al-Hol camp came just a day after SDF forces also had to leave a fully fledged Islamic State prison, al-Aqtan prison in al-Shaddadah, holding scores if not hundreds of inmates.

Read an in-depth look at the various players and their positions here.

The SDF retreat and Syrian government forces' advances of the past days also came after a supposed truce deal was reached between the interim government and SDF negotiators on Sunday. 

On Tuesday evening, the government said it had given the SDF a four-day deadline to agree on integrating its last enclave into the Syrian state. It said it would honor a ceasefire during this grace period. The SDF, in turn, said it would not attack unless provoked for the four days.

But it was too early to discern whether this latest diplomatic announcement would halt the fighting after others had failed to. 

Erstwhile US allies SDF now isolated with new leadership in Damascus

The SDF has controlled much of northeast Syria for years, particularly for the roughly seven years since the territorial defeat of the Islamic State, which claimed large parts of Syria and then lost them again in the midst of the long-running civil war.  

The SDF was for years a key ally to the US in its limited mission to displace IS fighters from parts of Syria and Iraq. 

But since the new interim government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, himself a former Islamist militant leader, has come to power, pledging to seek reconciliation with other ethnic groups in Syria, the SDF has found itself more isolated. 

Al-Sharaa's main backer internationally before coming to power was Turkey. Ankara considers the SDF to be closely tied to the insurgent Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which it and the EU and US deem a terrorist organization.  

In a sign of the changing stance of the US and its efforts to work with al-Sharaa, US Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, also the ambassador to Turkey, urged the SDF to cooperate with the new leadership in Damascus even amid the reports of its forces fleeing the military.

"The greatest opportunity for the Kurds in Syria right now lies in the post-Assad transition under the new government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa," Barrack wrote online. 

He said the two main US priorities in Syria were "ensuring the security of prison facilities holding ISIS prisoners, currently guarded by the SDF," and enabling talks between the government and Kurds to "allow for the peaceful integration of the SDF and the political inclusion of Syria's Kurdish population into a historic full Syrian citizenship."

Edited by: Sean Sinico