Syria’s Interior Ministry said Tuesday that about 120 Islamic State detainees escaped from Shaddadi prison, contradicting earlier reports by the Kurdish news site Rudaw, which cited a spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces as saying around 1,500 Islamic State members had fled.
The ministry said Syrian army units and Interior Ministry special forces entered Shaddadi following the breakout. Security forces later recaptured 81 escapees after search-and-sweep operations in the town and surrounding areas, it said, adding that efforts were continuing to arrest the remaining fugitives.
Earlier, the Syrian army said “a number of” Islamic State militants had escaped from a prison under SDF control in the eastern town of Shaddadi, accusing the SDF of releasing them.
The developments came after days of fighting between the SDF and government forces. On Sunday, the SDF agreed to withdraw from Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, two Arab-majority provinces it had controlled for years and home to Syria’s main oil fields.