11,000 ISIS fighters ready to break out of Kurdish prisons

ISIS terrorists will make their escape from prisons that can no longer be protected, Syrian Democratic Forces warn.

By World Israel News Staff

Kurdish fighters in Syria say  about 11,000 ISIS terrorists are being held by their security forces in northeastern Syria, Ynet reports. And they are ready to flee thanks to the opportunity provided by the Turkish onslaught.

The Kurds say they can no longer guard the prisons where the ISIS terrorists are held.

About 4,000 of the ISIS terrorists are Syrians, 4,000 Iraqis, and some 2,500 are foreign fighters from 50 different countries. The largest group of foreigners is from Tunisia. Paris officials say 60-70 are French civilians, Ynet reports.

The terrorists were captured during Kurdish operations, which received U.S. support. They are held in seven different facilities.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an umbrella group of largely Kurdish militias, have warned for months that they would have to abandon their oversight of those facilities if Turkey invaded. The threat has now become reality, the SDF says.

However, the U.S. and France say that the Turkish invasion into Syria hasn’t yet threatened the prison facilities and there has been no mass flight. On the other hand, videos posted to the internet appear to show large numbers of ISIS prisoners escaping.

“They’re just buildings, and they’re not well protected,” says a senior official quoted by Ynet.

The families of these terrorists are held in other places, camps that are said to be overflowing and in which take place many disturbances.

“In recent months there has been an increase in the number of terrorist attacks perpetrated by dormant ISIS cells in Syria,” Ynet reports.

“The organization has not ceased to operate even after losing all of the Islamic State territory it established in Syria and Iraq in the middle of the decade. The fear is that the escape of terrorists and their families will allow it to re-establish itself in the area,” the website reports.

President Donald Trump’s decision to move U.S. forces in Syria aside enabled Turkey to invade. He was criticized for his decision, including from members of his own party.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted “No matter what President Trump is saying about his decision, it is EXACTLY what President Obama did in Iraq with even more disastrous consequences for our national security.”

Graham told Fox News, “The biggest lie being told by the administration is that ISIS has been defeated… this to me is just unnerving to its core… To say to the American people ISIS has been destroyed in Syria is not true.”