Security is being tightened at ISIS prisons in Syria amid fears of revenge attacks after the death of the terror group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Kurdish guards are ‘on high alert’ today as they prepare for possible riots or attacks on the prison camps where thousands of ISIS supporters are being held.
Baghdadi had urged his followers to break ISIS fanatics out of prison in the last weeks of his life and it is feared he will prove a potent recruiting tool even in death.
His demise has not yet been formally announced in the camps but many of the prisoners have phones and the news is likely to have reached them by now.
There are also fears that ‘sleeper cells’ around the world will carry out reprisals and British intelligence chiefs are reportedly stepping up surveillance of extremist suspects today.
Detained: ISIS prisoners sit on the floor at a camp in northern Syria on Saturday – some of the tens of thousands of detainees being held by Kurdish fighters
Under guard: A fighter with the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led group which forced ISIS out of its last patch of territory earlier this year, watches prisoners on surveillance screens
‘Sleeper cells will seek revenge for Baghdadi’s death,’ said Mazloum Abdi, the top commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
‘This is why anything is possible, including attacks on prisons,’ he said.
More than 10,000 ISIS prisoners are being held in Syria while another camp is home to some 70,000 people, mainly relatives of the extremists.
Today the Syrian Kurdish forces said they were increasing security at prisons and detention facilities in the area.
Forces from the Kurdish-led internal security agency were on ‘high alert’ today, an official said.
Baghdadi died during a U.S. special forces raid on his compound in Syria on Saturday night, President Donald Trump announced yesterday.
A military operation led by the SDF reduced his so-called ‘caliphate’ to nothing earlier this year.
However, Baghdadi was widely seen as a figurehead rather than a day-to-day leader and his followers are still capable of mounting attacks.
Small units of fighters have since gone underground and continued to carry out guerrilla-style attacks in the region.
ISIS is believed to have sleeper cells around the world, and some fighters operate from the shadows in Syria’s desert and Iraq’s cities.
France has already voiced fears of a reprisal and the country’s interior minister called for increased vigilance last night.
‘The possible intensification of jihadist propaganda following this death, which could possibly call for acts of vengeance, requires the most extreme vigilance,’ said Christophe Castaner.
Eliminated: ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (pictured in a propaganda video in April this year) died at a Syrian compound during a raid by U.S. special forces
Waiting: Prisoners in orange jumpsuits on the floor of a camp in Hasakeh in Syria two days ago. There are fears of riots and attacks on prisons after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death
Under lock and key: Three prisoners are seen through a hatch in a cell door at the prison in north-eastern Syria which is being guarded by Kurdish forces
Security fears were already heightened after Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria caused chaos in the region.
Kurdish guards were summoned away from the camps to fend off the Turkish attack and a U.S. official said as many as 100 ISIS prisoners had already escaped.
However, Trump quickly insisted that some of the escaped prisoners had already been recaptured.
The SDF previously warned they would not be able to spare the forces to guard the al-Hol camp where families of ISIS jihadists are housed.
In his last recorded audio message, Baghdadi had urged attacks on the prisons to free ISIS fighters.
‘As for the worst and most important matter, the prisons, the prisons, oh soldiers of the caliphate. Your brothers and sisters; do your utmost to free them and tear down the walls restricting them,’ Baghdadi said.
Women at the camp have turned one of their tents into a court administering the group’s harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
Crowded: Some of the tens of thousands of prisoners being held at ISIS camps in Syria – where security is already in question after Turkey’s invasion
Escort: A Kurdish fighter unlocks the door of a prison cell while another one keeps watch over an ISIS prisoner at the camp in Hasakeh two days ago
The camp is also reliant on international aid, and food is sometimes scarce and the water used for drinking and cleaning is contaminated.
Last month, a 16-year-old girl was found guilty of apostasy and then stabbed repeatedly with knives.
Kurdish guards evacuated her to a clinic where she later died, according to the commander of a Kurdish police force.
Earlier this month police stormed a tent and rescued two women who had been sentenced to die and were about to be stabbed to death.
ISIS supporters had fought back with knives and pistols when the Kurdish guards stormed in.
President Trump yesterday threatened to ‘drop’ hundreds of ISIS fighters back in Europe if Britain, France and Germany would not take them back.
Trump called his European allies a ‘tremendous disappointment’ in a furious attack yesterday just moments after announcing Baghdadi’s death.
Demanding that Britain, France and Germany deal with their ISIS fighters at home, Trump warned the U.S. would not pay for hundreds of jihadists to be held at Guantanamo Bay ‘for the next 50 years’.
Europe has been reluctant to allow the fighters back in but Trump warned he would ‘drop them right on your border’ if they are not sent back to face justice.