Indonesian authorities on alert as ISIS terrorists escape Syria to awaken sleeper terror cells

Some 50 Indonesian Islamic State fighters and their family members imprisoned in northern Syria are believed to have escaped during Turkey’s invasion of the region to oust Kurdish forces, according to a counterterrorism source.

Turkey began a military assault on Syria after the United States abruptly withdrew its troops from the country last week.

Of the 12,000 Isis militants held in Syrian jails, about 2,000 come from foreign countries, including Indonesia and Malaysia. The rest are mostly from Syria and Iraq.

“According to our intelligence, around 50 Indonesian fighters and their families held in prison in Syria have escaped. That is our latest information,” an Indonesian counterterrorism source, who declined to be named, told the Post.

Indonesia has an estimated 34 jihadist fighters and about 700 Isis family members in Syria, he said.

“We have tightened up our surveillance at the airports, ports, land borders,” he said.

Source: SCMP