The Interior Ministry has announced that the Syrian army is searching for ISIS fugitives after dozens escaped from a prison in northeastern Syria as the government seeks to seize territory from Kurdish fighters.
The ministry announced on Tuesday that 81 of the 120 people who escaped had been captured, adding that “intensive security operations are continuing to trace the rest.”
Meanwhile, the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a former ally of the US in the fight against ISIS, accused the US-led coalition of failing to come to its aid after being forced out of much of its territory in the country. On Tuesday, the SDF announced its withdrawal from a vast camp housing tens of thousands of ISIS-linked civilians, citing “international indifference.”
Syrian state media reported that US President Donald Trump had earlier met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharah and supported Syria’s territorial integrity.
Here’s what we know about the jailbreak and the ongoing fighting in Syria.
Detainees escaped from al-Shadadi prison on Monday as government forces seized control of the area from the SDF, the United States’ main local partner in the fight against ISIS, which began in 2015. The SDF and the government had accused each other over the release of prisoners.
SDF spokesman Farhad Shami told Kurdish news site Rudaw that around 1,500 ISIS members “including both foreigners and Syrians” had fled, accusing pro-government armed groups of releasing them.
CNN cannot independently confirm the number of detainees in the prison or the number of escapees. The SDF announced on Monday that “thousands” of ISIS members were being held at al-Shadadi prison.
On Tuesday, it accused government forces of besieging al-Akhtan prison in northern Raqqa, which houses ISIS detainees, and cutting off its water supply, blaming the government for “any humanitarian or security consequences.”
The SDF later announced that it had withdrawn from Al-Hol camp, where tens of thousands of ISIS-linked families are being held, citing “international indifference” to ISIS and “failure of the international community to fulfill its responsibility to address this serious problem.”
The Syrian Ministry of Defense said the SDF had abandoned al-Hol, “effectively allowing those held inside” to leave, and was ready to take over ISIS prisons as well as camps. In a separate statement, the government said it had briefed the United States on the situation and accused the Self-Defense Forces of trying to “create a new security crisis in the region.”
The Ministry of Defense has promised that its troops will not enter Kurdish villages when occupying Kurdish-held areas of Syria.
Last year, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that more than 40,000 displaced people were being held in al-Hol and al-Roj camps, many of them affiliated with ISIS.
The Kurdish SDF feels abandoned by the United States as it reaffirms central control over all of Syria and strengthens ties with the al-Shara government, which opposes regional autonomy for religious and ethnic minorities.
Over the weekend, the Syrian army, with support from tribal militias, drove Kurdish forces out of vast swathes of northeastern Syria that the SDF had controlled for more than a decade.
After gaining territory, al-Sharaa said on Sunday that he had reached an agreement with the SDF to end the fighting. Despite the ceasefire, both sides reported further clashes on Monday.
The SDF was a partner of the United States in Syria, but the U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2019 pushed the Kurdish group into a corner, especially after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and al-Sharat’s rise to power late last year. The US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria has long relied on the SDF to guard ISIS prisons.
The SDF on Monday accused the coalition of failing to intervene to halt the advance of government-allied forces despite “repeated calls” to the base, about 2 kilometers (2 kilometers) away.
Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that al-Sharah spoke by phone with President Trump on Monday, and both sides emphasized “the importance of maintaining Syria’s territorial unity and independence.”
According to SANA, the two leaders also discussed Kurdish rights and the fight against ISIS.
ISIS emerged from the remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq. At its peak, it ruled over a third of Syria, with Raqqa as its capital. In 2017, the SDF declared the “total liberation” of Raqqa and worked with the US-led coalition to retake the territory from ISIS.
Human rights groups have criticized the humanitarian conditions in prisons housing suspected ISIS members captured by the SDF. In 2019, Amnesty International said prisons violated the rights of more than 56,000 people in detention.
“These people include Syrians, Iraqis and other foreign nationals from an estimated 74 countries,” Amnesty said, adding that they are being held in a network of at least 27 detention facilities and two camps.
Al-Shadadi Detention Center and Al-Akhtan Prison are both relatively small prisons that house both ISIS detainees and local prisoners not affiliated with ISIS.
Centcom announced last year that the Self-Defense Forces were guarding more than a dozen detention facilities in Syria housing more than 9,000 ISIS detainees from more than 50 countries.
“Literal and figurative ‘ISIS forces’ are in custody,” CENTCOM commented.
