MOSCOW: Hundreds of ISIS members have fled since Turkish invasion in northern Syria

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said that about 500 suspected militants have fled detention centers in northeastern Syria since the start of the Turkish offensive in the region.

During his talk to journalists in Sochi, Shoygu said that “efforts are being made to arrest the prisoners who had fled”, following the Russian-Turkish agreement to conduct joint patrols on the Syrian-Turkish borders.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said that the Turkish military invasion in northeastern Syria had made the issue of fighting extremist groups of ISIS and their families who are detained in the region “more acute today.”

“We can only reaffirm the countries the need for taking responsibility and return their citizens,” Robert Mardini, the UN observer for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told reporters.

Mardini added that the “good news” is that the ICRC is still working in al-Hol camp in the Syrian governorate of Hasakah, which includes about 70,000 people, most of whom have fled the Islamic State’s recent battlefields and that two-thirds of them are women and children.

“The stakes are very high in terms of the security, safety and rights of these people – that’s at the top of our agenda,” he stated.