About 1,500 Islamic State prisoners escape amid clashes between Syrian army and SDF

Reports claimed that 1,500 Islamic State prisoners had escapeda prison in the town of Shaddadeh, around 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Syria’s border to Iraq, while the Syrian ministry reported the number to be about 120 detainees. This comes amid the tensions between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian government forces. Despite reaching a ceasefire on Monday, brief clashes erupted on Monday evening in Raqa city, with heavy bombardment reported.

The SDF said government forces shelled the Al-Aqtan prison, “which holds ISIS members and leaders, in an attempt to storm it.” A defence ministry source later told AFP that clashes had halted.

While Syria’s Interior Ministry said that about 120 IS militants had escaped the prison in Shaddadi, Kurdish website Rudaw reported, citing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, that around 1,500 Islamic State detainees had escaped.

Government forces and the SDF have accused each other of the prison break. While the army claimed that the SDF, which controlled the facility, deliberately released the detainees, the Kurdish-led SDF stated it lost control of the prison after government forces attacked.

The Syrian army denied any attack on the jail, stating that its forces will work to secure the facility and re-arrest the escapees.

Following the prison breakout, government forces imposed a curfew in Shaddadeh. The SDF oversees more than a dozen prisons in northeastern Syria, where about 9,000 IS prisoners have been held for years. Many of these detainees are believed to have committed atrocities in Syria and Iraq after IS declared a caliphate in June 2014 across large parts of both countries.

On Monday (Jan 19), Syria said that President Ahmed al-Sharaa held a phone call with US President Donald Trump to discuss Kurdish rights guarantees, a day after Damascus reached a deal with Kurdish forces, including a truce. Sharaa also met with Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, to discuss the agreement, which includes integrating the Kurds' administration into the state. However, AFP reported, citing a Kurdish source familiar with the talks, that the discussions were not positive.