U.S., Syrian troops capture ISIS leader who helped prisoners escape

U.S. and Syrian soldiers captured a senior ISIS leader who aided in the escape last week of terrorists from a detention facility in Syria, U.S. Central Command officials said.

The allies seized Khaled Ahmed al-Dandal on Sunday. Central Command called him a “facilitator” and said he was involved in the Aug. 29 escape of five ISIS fighters from the Raqqah prison in Syria.

The Syrian Democratic Forces also captured two of the escapees: Imam Abdulwahed Akhwan of Russia and Muhammad Noh Muhammad of Libya.

U.S. Central Command officials said the search continues for the three who remain at large: Timor Talbrken Abdash of Russia along with Afghan fighters Shuab Muhammad Al-Abdil and Atal Khaled Zar.

“Over 9,000 ISIS detainees remain in over 20 SDF detention facilities in Syria, a literal and figurative ‘ISIS Army’ in detention,” Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, said Monday in a statement. “If a large number of these ISIS fighters escaped, it would pose an extreme danger to the region and beyond.”

Freeing its fighters held in prisons such as Raqqah is a primary objective of ISIS, which wants to fuel a revival of the Islamic State, which once controlled 42,000 square miles of territory in Iraq and Syria.

“We will continue to work with the international community to repatriate these ISIS fighters to their countries of origin for final adjudication,” Gen. Kurilla said.