With the launch of the Turkish offensive in northern Syria, all eyes are on Kurdish prisons detaining thousands of ISIS fighters and their families. Concerns of a mass-scale ISIS prison break have grown as Turkish troops enter northeastern Syria to confront the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF). According to Kurdish commanders, ISIS fighters will be closely watching the fighting between Turkish and Kurdish troops in northeastern Syria, waiting for a chance to break thousands of fighters, and tens of thousands of family members, out of Kurdish prisons. As many as 12,000 ISIS fighters including about 2,000 foreigners are held in SDF prisons, and among the 70,000 women and children in al Hol are hundreds of women who are still loyal to ISIS’s ground leadership.
According to Syrian Kurdish officials, more than 700 Islamic State supporters have already escaped from a camp in northeastern Syria amid heavy fighting brought on by Turkey’s invasion of the region. A former ISIS fighter explained that the group is deeply experienced in prison breaks, and its men will have organized while they were detained. Fearing a well-planned coordination, a western intelligence officer warned, “We are sure that there is close cooperation between fighters in some prisons, the families in al Hol, and the units that are still free in the desert area between Iraq and Syria”.
Two years since the defeat of ISIS and its expulsion from the northern Syrian city of Raqqa where the terror group set up its so-called Caliphate’s headquarters, fears arise with the increasing risks of ISIS making a bloody comeback. The SDF bases around the city of Raqqa helped contain ISIS, but last week’s Turkish invasion of northern Syria has upended the relative quiet, and since the start of Turkey’s military offensive, ISIS has launched three suicide bombings in Raqqa.
