Sep 3, 2024 - World

U.S. captures ISIS leader in Syria who helped fighters escape, CENTCOM says

Rebecca Falconer

US soldiers patrol an area with armoured personnel carriers (APC) in the town of Tal Hamis, southeast of the city of Qameshli in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh governorate, on January 24, 2024. — U.S. soldiers patrol an area of the city of Qamishli in Syria's northeastern Hasakah governorate, earlier this year. Photo: Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. troops and allies captured an ISIS leader who helped members of the militant group's fighters escape from a detention center in Syria, the United States Central Command announced Monday.

The big picture: American troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led coalition, captured ISIS facilitator Khaled Ahmed al-Dandal on Sunday — days after "five ISIS Foreign Terrorist Fighter detainees (Two Russians, two Afghans, and one Libyan) escaped from the Raqqah Detention Facility," per a CENTCOM statement.

The SDF recaptured two of the escapees, but CENTCOM said three remained at large.

Why it matters: ISIS was ousted from the last territory it held in the Middle East in 2019, in Baghouz, Syria, but CENTCOM warns that the group's "primary objective ... remains to free their fighters currently held in detention and subsequently fuel an ISIS revival."

Gen. Michael "Eric" Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM, said in a statement that 9,000 ISIS detainees remained in more than 20 SDF detention facilities in Syria.
He described this as "a literal and figurative 'ISIS Army' in detention," adding: "If a large number of these ISIS fighters escaped, it would pose an extreme danger to the region and beyond."

Flashback: ISIS claims responsibility for attack that killed over 80

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U.S. captures ISIS leader in Syria who helped fighters escape, CENTCOM says

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