5 ISIS prisoners break out of Kurdish prison
1 lakh people displaced so far due to Turkish offensive
Qamishli (Syria), Oct 12: Kurdish officials said five detained members of the Islamic State group managed to escape from a Kurdish-run prison in northeastern Syria on Friday after Turkish shelling hit the area.
The offensive has so far displaced some 1,00,000 people, according to the United Nations.
“Five terrorists escaped from Navkur after shelling struck near the prison,” said an official from the Syrian Democratic Forces, the de facto army of the autonomous Kurdish region.
A prison guard at Navkur, in the town of Qamishli, said before the breakout that the facility housed mostly foreign jihadists.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies on Wednesday launched a deadly crossborder military offensive against areas controlled by the SDF.
The attack has resulted in artillery fire striking near a number of critical facilities, including some of the prisons where thousands of IS suspects are being held.
Without the support of US troops, who pulled back from the border earlier this week, Kurdish fighters have been redeployed from other areas in
a bid to hold off Turkishbacked forces. Another Kurdish official said the Jerkin facility, another nearby prison, had also come under regular Turkish fear, increasing the chances of a breakout there too.
The prospect of mass breakouts is causing deep concern among many foreign powers, who fear the return on their soil of IS fighters and the resurgence of the jihadist group in the region.
As per Kurdish administration, some 12,000 men are held in seven detention centres across Kurdish-controlled areas.