President Trump is "falsely claiming that the SDF Kurds are letting ISIS prisoners out of prison," a senior US defense official told CNN, referencing the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
The official added that Trump "is wrong because they are the people that defeated ISIS, wrong because they are currently risking their lives to defend our forces and wrong because they are fighting a force that intends to eliminate their people because we green lighted their operation."
President Trump’s order to pull back US troops from the border has been criticized as effectively giving Turkey the green light to launch their offensive.
Some background: Trump tweeted this morning alleging that the SDF may intentionally release any of the 10,000-plus ISIS prisoners in SDF custody as part of a bid to draw international support. US officials have told CNN there are no indications that this is happening.
While the SDF has repeatedly highlighted the danger of ISIS escaping to draw attention to the issue and draw international support, they have made it clear that they need to prioritize their personnel, redeploying forces that had been guarding the detention camps to the front with Turkey, leaving some of the camps undermanned or even near totally abandoned.