A U.S. official, speaking anonymously to Reuters on Tuesday, reported that around 200 low-level Islamic State militants escaped from the al-Shaddadi prison camp on Monday. This occurred following the withdrawal of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from the site.
The figure provided by the U.S. official significantly exceeds the Syrian government’s estimate of 120 escapees. However, it is considerably less than the 1,500 potential escapees feared by the SDF under their worst-case scenario.
The U.S. official noted that the al-Shaddadi camp’s inmate population had already decreased significantly prior to the incident, as approximately 600 foreign ISIS fighters were relocated to other facilities. This transfer occurred before the outbreak of hostilities between the SDF and forces aligned with the Syrian government.
Damascus authorities reported that many escapees were swiftly recaptured by the Syrian army, a statement corroborated by the U.S. official’s account to Reuters.
Conflicting narratives are common in the ongoing conflict between the SDF and the central Syrian government. On Tuesday, the Syrian Interior Ministry accused the SDF of recklessly abandoning the prison camps, which housed dangerous ISIS inmates, and even intentionally releasing some to exert pressure on the government.
Conversely, the SDF has accused jihadist paramilitary groups allied with the central government of intentionally freeing ISIS prisoners.
The central government’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it was prepared to assume full control of all the ISIS prison camps previously administered by the SDF, including the massive facility at al-Hol where the wives and children of many captive ISIS terrorists have been living for years.
The Defense Ministry also promised not to provoke the SDF by entering Kurdish villages. In turn, Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Murhaf Abu Qasra on Wednesday urged the SDF to stop arbitrarily arresting civilians in Hasakah Province, their region of influence.
Qasra said these arrests “pose a serious threat to the ceasefire as a whole,” and called on the SDF to “release all detainees without delay.”
The arrests Qasra referred to were apparently an effort by the SDF to neutralize non-Kurdish Arab militias that were previously part of the SDF coalition.
When the SDF began to crumble under attack from central government forces, some Arab tribes in Hasakah defected and began taking control of their own territory. The SDF, its military strength boiled down to Kurdish militias like the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), worried that the Arabs could weaken their already tenuous strategic position.
Conversely, Arabs and Assyrian Christians living in the area are worried about the Kurds growing hostile towards them.
The ceasefire agreement reached on Monday gave the SDF four days to resolve any outstanding issues and begin fully integrating with the central Syrian government and military. The SDF, a Kurdish-led alliance that worked with the U.S. and Western powers against the Islamic State during the Syrian civil war, has accused the Damascus government of using military force and brutal tactics to seize Kurdish territory and force the SDF to surrender.
