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Source: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/isis-may-prosper-from-syrias-dangerous-turn-a6238b0b
ISIS May Prosper from Syria's Dangerous Turn
(Wall Street Journal) Jonathan Spyer - While I was staying in Hasakah, Syria, last April, a Kurdish commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces told me he expected to be fighting the new government in Damascus within a year. The new Islamist rulers of Syria, he said, were never going to tolerate the Kurdish-led SDF. He was right. The attempt is underway. Some 50,000 ISIS prisoners and their family members are held in jails supervised by the SDF. Government forces have taken Al-Hol camp, home to 24,000 relatives of Islamic State fighters. Footage has emerged of the government's men greeting the inmates with joyous shouts of victory, encouraging them to flee. In Shaddadi prison in Hasakah, hundreds of ISIS fighters have made their way to freedom thanks to attacks by government forces. For 15 years, the SDF - secular, progressive in its attitude toward women, aligned with the West - built the most stable and sanely governed part of Syria. In its place will likely be jihadist chaos, the murder of female Kurdish fighters, and hundreds of ISIS men escaping incarceration and rallying again. The writer is director of research at the Middle East Forum and editor of Middle East Quarterly.