The Deadly Prison Break in Syria – The Return of the Islamic State?

After the US built relations with the new Syrian leader Ahmed Al Sharaa, Washington withdrew its support from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the vanguard that defeated the Islamic State in 2019.

Now, the Syrian Armed Forces consisting of HTS, Al Qaeda and other Jihad groups have attacked prisons containing thousands of IS prisoners, vandalised SDF monuments, and kidnapped and sexually assaulted Kurdish women and girls.

This is the end of the autonomous Kurdish-led region in Syria, which existed for a decade.

In this article, I outline the rapidly deteriorating situation in northeast Syria.