The United States has arrested a leader who helped members of the terrorist organization ISIS escape from a compound in Syria, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
Central Command forces, working with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), reportedly captured Khaled Ahmed al-Dandar on Sunday. releaseThis comes just days after five foreign ISIS terrorist fighters escaped from their Raqqa compound.
CENTCOM said the SDF had recaptured the other two, but three of the fugitives remain at large. Al-Dandar is considered a “middleman” facilitating the operations of the captured ISIS fighters.
According to the Syrian army, more than 9,000 ISIS detainees are being held in over 20 SDF detention facilities across Syria, and ISIS hopes to release its fighters “and then facilitate the resurgence of ISIS.”
Gen. Michael Eric Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, called the figure “an ISIS army that is literally and figuratively in straits.”
“If large numbers of ISIS fighters were to escape, this would pose an enormous danger to the region and beyond,” Kurilla said in a statement, adding that the United States would continue to work with the international community to repatriate ISIS fighters to their countries of origin.
Last week, U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces ISIS fighter A separate attack killed at least 15 of the group's operatives in western Iraq.
The latest developments come as the threat from terror groups such as ISIS has come into renewed focus three years after the US withdrew from Afghanistan, worrying security experts. Last month, people linked to ISIS carried out a stabbing attack in Germany and threatened a Taylor Swift concert in Austria.
