Extremist groups that seized power in Damascus with the backing of Ankara and Washington – have been clashing with Kurdish militias who still control dozens of prisons holding thousands of ISIS fighters.
There is now a very real risk of thousands of ISIS fighters being released into a brewing ‘civil war’ in Syria…
IMAGE: Men accused of being Islamic State militants sit on the floor of a makeshift clinic at a critically overcrowded prison in Hasakah, Syria, on Monday. (Image Source: Alice Martins for Washington Post)
The Cradle reports…
US counterterrorism officials are warning that Turkiye’s continued support for the Syrian National Army’s (SNA) offensive against Washington’s Kurdish proxies in northern Syria threatens to provoke a “massive jailbreak” of thousands of ISIS fighters.
“I usually hate this cliche, but this is the closest thing we have to a ticking time bomb,” an unnamed US official told POLITICO. “If [Turkiye] doesn’t get these attacks on the [Syrian Democratic Forces] halted, we could have a massive jailbreak on our hands.”
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have helped Washington retain control of Syria’s oil and wheat-rich regions in the northeast since 2015 after wrestling control away from ISIS. The Kurdish militia also controls dozens of makeshift prison camps that hold tens of thousands of ISIS members and their families.
“This is essentially a terrorist army in detention,” Joseph Votel, a retired US general who led Central Command (CENTCOM) from 2016 to 2019, told the DC-based outlet. “I am very concerned,” he added.
The SNA – a Turkish proxy militia comprised of former fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Al-Qaeda, and ISIS – has been launching heavy attacks against SDF positions in northern Syria over the past two weeks following the collapse of the Syrian government.
Approximately 10,000 battle-hardened ISIS fighters are detained by the SDF in northeastern Syria, with around 5,000 being Syrians, 3,000 Iraqis, and about 2,000 hail from Europe, Central Asia, and North America. Additionally, there are about 56,000 displaced persons, including the family members of ISIS fighters, held in camps like Al-Hawl and Al-Roj.
“If we want to make sure that those camps are properly guarded, we, the United States, need to provide the Syrian Kurds with assurances that we will prevent Turkiye from attacking them,” US Senator Chris Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a recent interview. “When Turkiye supports the Syrian National Army’s attacks against the Kurds, the big winner is ISIS.”
In 2010, one year before the start of the US-backed war in Syria, the predecessor of ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq – had been defeated. But US planners eventually released leaders of the group from Bucca Prison in Iraq, reviving the organization and allowing it to launch an insurgency against the neighboring government of Bashar al-Assad…
Continue this analysis at The Cradle
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