Türkiye on Monday strongly denied allegations that Daesh terrorists were released by the Syrian army with Ankara’s assistance, calling the claims completely unfounded.
In a statement, the Center for Countering Disinformation said Türkiye is internationally recognized for leading some of the most extensive efforts against Daesh in the region and for inflicting the group’s most significant defeats to date.
The statement urged the public, as well as allied and neighboring countries with longstanding historical and cultural ties to Türkiye, not to give credence to what it described as baseless accusations.
The SDF, which is allied with the U.S. under the pretext of fighting Daesh terrorists in northern Syria, controls more than a dozen prisons in the northeast where some 9,000 Daesh members have been held for years. The SDF is dominated by the terrorist group YPG, the Syrian branch of the terrorist PKK.
Many of the detained extremists are believed to have carried out atrocities in Syria and Iraq after IS declared a caliphate in June 2014 over large parts of Syria and Iraq.
Deadly clashes broke out between the SDF and the Syrian military last week which ended with a cease-fire deal reached Sunday and government forces taking wide areas of northeast Syria back from the terror group. The deal also includes the integration of SDF into government forces.
The army said Monday in a statement that some of the Shaddadi Prison detainees in the town of Shaddadeh were able to flee amid the chaos.
The SDF accused the Syrian government of releasing the detainees while later confirming it lost control over the prison, which is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the border with Iraq.
The Syrian army said sweep operations were underway to recapture Daesh prisoners released by the SDF.
The army also announced "a complete curfew in the city of al-Shaddadi and its surroundings," and called on residents to "inform deployed military units of any fleeing Daesh elements."
Earlier, the command explained that the army contacted mediators and the SDF "to hand over the al-Shaddadi prison to the internal security forces to secure it and its surroundings, but the SDF leadership rejected this and continues to do so until this moment."
The Syrian army held the SDF "fully responsible for releasing Daesh elements from al-Shaddadi prison," vowing to take the necessary measures "to reestablish control over the area."
Türkiye is a major supporter of post-Assad Syria and views the SDF/YPG as a threat to its own national security. Ankara has hinted that it may resort to a military option in Syria as it did in the past to thwart the SDF/YPG's ambitions, but repeatedly called for dialogue to resolve the dispute between the SDF/YPG and Damascus.
