www.zerohedge.com There’s growing concern that over 10,000 jihadists, among these thousands of ISIS terrorists, could go free as a result of Turkey’s ongoing invasion of northeast Syria. This is especially the case at the sprawling al-Hol prison camp, administered and guarded by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), home to over 70,000 people – mostly families of known ISIS fighters. This as the White House seems to have washed its hands of the matter, leaving the question up to local and regional powers, especially Turkey.
Al-Hol is considered ground zero for a potential resurgent ISIS, ready to explode as SDF security was already severely undermanned even months prior to this week’s Turkish Army attack, and now there’s large scale rioting breaking out, per SDF official reports and video footage
Specifically the SDF currently holds about 11,000 ISIS prisoners, not to mention families of Islamic State terrorists at al-Hol. A Time report noted:
The U.S. military has no plans to take over these camps and, with only about 1,000 total troops inside Syria, is not prepared to do so, U.S. officials told TIME. If the Kurds abandon their guard posts to defend their homes against the Turkish military incursion, thousands of ISIS operatives are likely to escape, U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence officials have concluded.