What is "al-hawl"

al-Hawl , also spelled al-Hol, al-Hool and al-Houl, is a town in eastern al-Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria. It is administrative center of the al-Hawl Nahiya consisting of 22 municipalities.

At the 2004 census, the town had a population of 3,409.

During the Syrian Civil War, al-Hawl was seized and held under occupation by Islamic State forces. For both its strategic significance and its almost uniformly Arab population, it had become one of the major strongholds of the IS in northeastern Syria. On 13 November 2015, Al-Hawl was liberated by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in what was considered the SDF's first strategic success, since its establishment by People's Protection Units (YPG) and allied forces.