Turkish attacks on Syria help Daesh inmates break out of jail

Five Daesh prisoners have managed to break out of a jail in northern Syria after Turkish mortar attacks nearby, media reports say, as Kurdish forces abandon guarding the prisons amid Ankara’s incursion.

The inmates fled Jirkin prison in the Syrian city of Qamishli, according to a spokesman in the so-called Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Separately, 100 women affiliated with the extremist group also attacked Kurdish security officers at al-Hol camp in one of the regions coming under the Turkish fire in an attempt to escape.

On Friday, head of the SDF press office Mustafa Bali told Rudaw that Kurdish forces can no longer be responsible for the ticking time bomb that is the thousands of Daesh militants and their supporters held in Kurdish jails.

“We are currently subject to a genocidal attack. There is a project to make a demographic change and eradicate Kurds. Therefore, our first duty is the protection of our people, border and soil,” Bali said in Hasaka, northern Syria.

“All our forces are focusing on this now. Our prisons, which have about 12,000 Daesh gangs, and camps, which have more than 90,000 families of Daesh militants and migrants, are like bombs. We do not know when they will explode. However, this is no longer our responsibility,” he said.

1000s of Daesh inmates may flee Syria jails amid Turkey opThere are growing concerns that thousands of Daesh terrorists escape from Syrian prisons amid Turkish incursion.

Bali said they have done their best to hold the militants on behalf of the world, but now they have to take care of themselves. “We are facing eradication and genocide. We have to defend ourselves,” he said.

As more Kurdish guards leave their posts, makeshift prisons holding Daesh terrorists are getting more vulnerable to escapes, the Kurds warn.

With Turkish troops launching a third night of airstrikes and ground incursions, ABC News also reported on Friday that Daesh prisoners have breached several prisons in northern Syria.

JUST IN FROM @MARTHARADDATZ: ISIS HAS BREACHED SEVERAL PRISONS IN NORTHERN SYRIA. OFFICIAL SAYS TURKEY IS DELIBERATELY TARGETING AMERICAN BASES SO WE WILL DEPART. @ABC— DEVIN DWYER (@DEVINDWYER) OCTOBER 11, 2019

Also on Friday, a car bomb went off on a residential street in Qamishli, which is the de facto capital of the Kurdish-held region, in a rare act of Daesh terrorism in a city that was relatively free of trouble before the Turkish assault began.