US says captured Daesh leader in Syria

CENTCOM forces, working with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), captured Khaled Ahmed al-Dandal on Sunday, according to a release on Monday, just days after five Daesh foreign terrorist fighter detainees fled the Raqqah Detention Facility.

Three of the escapees remain at large, according to CENTCOM, after SDF recaptured two others. Al-Dandal was assessed as a “facilitator” aiding efforts of detained Daesh fighters.

More than 9,000 Daesh detainees are held in over 20 SDF detention facilities in Syria, the military said, and Daesh wants to free its detained fighters and “subsequently fuel a Daesh revival.”

Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM commander, called the numbers “a literal and figurative ‘Daesh Army’ in detention”.

“If a large number of these Daesh fighters escaped, it would pose an extreme danger to the region and beyond,” Kurilla said in a statement, adding that the US will continue to work with the international community to repatriate the Daesh fighters to their countries of origin.

Last week, the US military and Iraqi Security Forces targeted Daesh militants in a separate raid that left at least 15 of the group’s operatives dead in Western Iraq.

The latest developments come as threats from terrorist groups such as Daesh come into new focus three years after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, worrying security experts. Last month, Daesh-affiliated actors carried out a stabbing attack in Germany and threatened a Taylor Swift concert in Austria.