Kurdish forces are claiming that hundreds of ISIS prisoners have escaped at the Ain Issa detention facility while fighting raged nearby, while two officials told the New York Times that the US military had failed to secure 60 or so high-value detainees before its forces departed ... Given the thousands of Europeans who went to fight for the Islamic State and the problems Europe has had with jihadist terrorism in general, they should be alarmed by the US abandonment of the Syrian Kurds and the possible escape of large numbers of ISIS prisoners

A close ally is abandoned, and Isis is regrouping ... The speed of the unravelling is breathtakingIn the week since Donald Trump’s fateful phone conversation with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the US has entirely abandoned the Kurds, its most effective allies in the Middle East, and with them a Syria strategy that was five years in the making

Yesterday saw multiple reports of jailbreaks from Kurdish-operated prisons and camps that contained ISIS supporters ... Kurds have fled, prisons have been left unattended, and ISIS members, including Europeans and other foreigners posing serious terrorist threats, have walked free or may walk free soon

Turkish military vehicles carry tanks to the Syrian border on 12 October 2019 ... Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPAThe conflict engulfing north-east Syria is a wholly avoidable disaster

They also accuse Trump of abandoning a key US ally in the fight against ISIS, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces SDF ... Also of concern for those critical of the Turkish action is the fact the SDF is in charge of a large number of ISIS prisoners

”A senior State Department official told reporters yesterday that the Turkish attacks on northeastern Syria targeting Kurdish fighters who have been America’s best partners in defeating ISIS in the country would help no one—not even Turkey ... counterterrorism efforts in the ISIS era—hitches came up

Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/GettyThe first time Porter Goodman went to Iraq was in 2006 as a mechanic in the U ... S

American troops pulled back from outposts near the border with Turkey, where a contingent of about 50 to 100 special operators were working with Kurdish-led forces against ISIS ... In that conversation, Erdogan decried American efforts to cooperate with Turkey on security near the border—the Kurdish militia that controls the area, which has been a vital American partner in defeating ISIS, is one that Turkey sees as a terrorist group

Today in PoliticsMartyn Aim / laif / ReduxAs Turkey moves in on northeastern Syria after the removal of American troops, exposing America’s Kurdish partners in the fight against ISIS, take a moment to consider who exactly the American withdrawal leaves exposed ... Mike Giglio has spent years tracking the rise and fall of ISIS

"Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to ...