US military says it has transported ‘IS fighters’ to Iraq after Kurdish-controlled prisons and camps changed hands
Concerned western officials said they were closely monitoring the deteriorating security situation in north-east Syria amid fears that Islamic State militants could re-emerge after the Kurdish defeat at the hands of the Damascus government.
The US military said it had transported “150 IS fighters” from a frontline prison in Hasakah province across the border to Iraq, and said it was willing to move up to 7,000 to prevent what it warned could be a dangerous breakout.
Kurdish sources said the prison involved was Panorama, which holds men from numerous countries – including a handful from the UK – though there was no detail on who had been rendered across the border.
The dramatic advance of Syrian government forces, halted by a fragile ceasefire on Tuesday, resulted in prisons holding former IS fighters and a camp of over 23,000 IS women and children changing hands in a chaotic fashion within a few days.
