A notorious
British "matchmaker" accused of recruiting brides for Islamic State is feared to have escaped after hundreds of Isil-linked women broke out of a Kurdish-run camp after it was attacked by Turkish-led forces. Seven hundred and eighty five foreign Isil members being held at the Ein Issa camp in north east
Syria fled under the cover of
Turkish shelling on Sunday morning, according to the Kurdish administration that runs the camp. The escape is the biggest
prison break yet since the Turkish offensive began five days ago. Inmates at Ein Issa included Tooba Gondal, 25, and her two children. The former Goldsmith's University student, from Walthamstow, travelled to Syria to join Isil in 2015 and has been accused of encouraging other young British women, including Shamima Begum, to follow her. The Kurdish administration in the town of Ein Issa, which runs the camp, said the breakout took place "in co-ordination with a group of Turkish mercenaries, covered by Turkish shelling and supported by the Turkish attack and its mercenaries who launched a fierce attack on the camp." “These Isil members attacked the camp guard and opened the doors to flee,” the administration said in a statement.
Turkey - Syria map The Telegraph was not immediately able to verify the exact number of escapees, nor the breakdown of women, men and children. Save the Children, which runs relief programs in northern Syria, said it was "deeply concerned" at news of the escape and that it had heard reports that the annex was now "completely empty" of foreign women and that masked foreign men had been seen circling it on motorcycles. “Once again, we urgently call on foreign governments to repatriate their nationals while they can. The opportunity is quickly slipping away,” Save the Children Syria Response Director Sonia Khush said. “We heard reports that the authorities on the ground took some of the foreign women to another location, but many have fled and some are unaccounted for,” Khush added. Turkey launched an offensive against the Syrian
Democratic Forces, an alliance of armed groups dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, in northern Syria on Wednesday. Read more | Syria crisis The attack has seen Turkish-backed Syrian Arab rebel groups fighting Kurdish-led forces who fought alongside US, British, and French troops to defeat Isil. The SDF was left to
police thousands of fighters and families taken prisoner during the war against Isil, and warned there would be a risk of escape if it was forced to pull troops from guarding the prisoners in order to respond to a Turkish attack. The camp at Ein Issa is just 35 km 20 miles south of the Turkish border and, until this morning, was home to some 12,000 people including 1,000 wives and widows of Isil fighters, and their children. The town of Ein Issa, once home to 25,000 people, was nearly empty Monday afternoon. Its residents are among the 130,000 Syrians who have fled the area since the fighting began.