Recipe for disaster

Turkey ramped up its air and artillery strikes in north-east Syria on Friday, escalating its offensive against Kurdish forces amid warnings that the military operation could lead to the revival of ISIS in the region.

The Kurds, who recaptured swathes of northeastern Syria from the extremist group with the backing of the United States, say the Turkish assault could allow the jihadist group to re-emerge. In its first big attack since the assault began, ISIS claimed responsibility for a deadly car bomb in Qamishli, the largest city in the Kurdish-held area, even as the city came under heavy Turkish shelling.

Five ISIS fighters fled a jail there, and foreign women from the group being held in a camp torched tents and attacked guards with sticks and stones, the Kurds said. Earlier on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Turkey’s Syria incursion could lead to the revival of ISIS in the region.

Mr Putin said the Syrian Kurdish militias who were guarding thousands of imprisoned ISIS fighters were now fleeing after Turkey launched artillery and air strikes on Wednesday. “I’m not sure whether the Turkish army will be able to take this under control – and how soon,” the Russian president told a meeting of heads of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an association of ex-Soviet countries, in Turkmenistan.

According to the Kurdish administration, about 12,000 ISIS prisoners are being held in seven detention centres across Kurdish-controlled areas.