RAQQA, Syria (AP) — Guards from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces abandoned a camp Tuesday in northeast Syria housing thousands of people linked to the Islamic State group, and the Syrian military said that allowed the detainees to escape.

Hours later, the Syrian government and the SDF announced a new four-day truce after a previous ceasefire between government forces broke down. The two sides have been clashing for two weeks, amid a breakdown in negotiations over the implementation of a deal to merge their forces together.

The al-Hol camp houses mainly women and children who are family members of IS members or accused of being otherwise affiliated with the group. Thousands of accused IS militants are separately housed in prisons in northeast Syria.

Syria’s interior ministry accused the SDF of allowing the release of “a number of detainees from the ISIS militant (group) along with their families.” The AP could not independently confirm if detainees had escaped from the camps or how many.

The SDF subsequently confirmed that its guards had withdrawn from the camp, but did not say whether any detainees were able to escape. The group blamed its move on “international indifference toward the issue of the ISIS terrorist organization and the failure of the international community to assume its responsibilities in addressing this serious matter,” using another abbreviation for IS.

It said its forces had redeployed “in the vicinity of cities in northern Syria that are facing increasing risks and threats” from government forces.

An official with the US military’s Central Command, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said, “We are aware of the reports and are closely monitoring the situation.”

The SDF and the government have also traded blame over the escape on Monday of IS members from a prison in the northeastern town of Shaddadeh, amid the breakdown of a ceasefire deal that had been reached........

© The Times of Israel