Al-Hawl ( ar-at, ٱلْهَوْل, al-Hawl, lit="swampland"), also spelled al-Hole, al-Hol, al-Hool and al-Houl, is a town in eastern

al-Hasakah Governorate Al-Hasakah Governorate ( ar, محافظة الحسكة, Muḥāfaẓat al-Ḥasakah, ku, Parêzgeha Hesekê}, syc, ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܚܣܟܗ, Huparkiyo d'Ḥasake, also known as syc, ܓܙܪܬܐ, Gozarto) is one of the fourteen governorates (pro ...

, northeastern Syria, under control of the

Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabq ...

. It is the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, L ...

of the Al-Hawl Subdistrict consisting of 22 municipalities. At the 2004 census, the town had a population of 3,409. Al-Hawl is the site of the

Al-Hawl refugee camp The al-Hawl refugee camp (also al-Hol refugee camp) is a refugee camp on the southern outskirts of the town of al-Hawl in northern Syria, close to the Syria-Iraq border, which holds individuals displaced from the Islamic State of Iraq and the ...

. During the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

, al-Hawl was seized by

Islamic State An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

forces, becoming one of the major IS strongholds in northeastern Syria. On 13 November 2015, al-Hawl was captured by the SDF, in what was considered as the first strategic success by the newly established SDF.

Infrastructure

North of the town is a significant road junction connecting the provincial capital with the Iraqi border. While the northeastern branch proceeds towards Tall Hamis and the