Pentagon won’t take over ISIS prisons if U.S.-allied Kurdish forces withdraw, officials say

The U.S. military has no plans to intervene if Syrian Kurdish forces abandon a constellation of Islamic State prisons in Syria to confront a possible Turkish invasion, officials said Tuesday.

Kurdish officials said that guards were still in place at the more than 20 prisons and camps under their control but were prepared to move, raising the possibility that about 11,000 militants and their families could escape.

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the evolving U.S. strategy in Syria, said the Pentagon did not have enough forces to oversee the prisons if those facilities were left unguarded, nor a mandate to do so…

For the past year, U.S. officials have been pushing other countries, with little success, to repatriate their citizens who were captured fighting for the Islamic State. In addition to fears about possible prison breaks, military commanders have said a new generation of extremists could emerge among the thousands of children being reared under bleak conditions at the camps.