Northern Syria’s Kurdish-led administration said “mercenaries” had struck at the Ain Issa camp where “ISIS elements” then attacked security staff and burst through the gates. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdulrahman said sources had described a state of “anarchy” inside the sprawling desert camp. Ain Issa houses 12,000 displaced people, including about 1,000 ISIS brides and children.
Kurdish officials confirming that 760 detainees escaped from the facility after it was shelled by advancing Turkish and Syrian rebel forces.
Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) officials said there were insufficient numbers to guard the camp with many fighters sent to the front lines and others fleeing the Turkish shelling.
SDF spokesman Marvan Qamishlo said 1,500 guards were required to patrol the massive camp 30 miles north of war-torn Raqqa.
But he warned: “The guarding is very weak now. We don’t have this sufficient number.”
Reports from aid workers suggest the camp is now completely empty of foreign women, with foreign masked men on motorbikes circling the camp.
Save the Children said it was deeply concerned by reports hundreds of women and children linked to ISIS had fled in terror as Ain Issa was bombarded by Turkish forces.
A spokesman said the camp’s annex had been home to 249 women and 700 children connected to ISIS and warned of “a danger that children of foreign nationals could now be lost in the chaos”.
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The latest mass break-out comes after five ISIS fighters escaped from a jail in northeast Syria during Turkish airstrikes and reports of disturbances at the notorious Al Hawl detention camp which was once home to British jihadi bride Shamima Begum.
As the Turkish invasion entered its fifth day, the UN said at least 130,000 people had been displaced by the conflict, with many more likely on the move.
Two US military officials said a small number of American troops had been moved out of Ain Issa because of fierce fighting in the area.
The officials said the troops had moved because of concerns they could be caught in the middle of the Turkish offensive.