{"id":51587,"date":"2019-10-23T17:20:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T17:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/23\/us-does-not-know-where-isis-escapees-are-says-syria-envoy\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:48:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:48:26","slug":"us-does-not-know-where-isis-escapees-are-says-syria-envoy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2019\/10\/23\/us-does-not-know-where-isis-escapees-are-says-syria-envoy\/","title":{"rendered":"US does not know where ISIS escapees are, says Syria envoy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2015 U.S. special envoy for Syria and the Global Coalition to Defeat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2019\/10\/17\/isis-will-be-back-lawmakers-voice-syria-fears-to-pentagon-chiefs\/\" target=_blank>ISIS<\/a>, Jim Jeffrey, said Tuesday that more than 100 Islamic State prisoners have escaped to parts unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c[T]he number is now over 100. We do not know where they are,\u201d Jeffrey said, amid questions from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. Jeffrey hastily added that the prisons guarded by America\u2019s Kurdish partners, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, are still under guard, the U.S. is monitoring them and that the prisons remain a top priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turkey\u2019s incursion into northern Syria &#8220;has scrambled the entire northeast, undercut our efforts against ISIS, and brought in the Russians and Syrian regime forces in a way that\u2019s really tragic for everyone involved,\u201d Jeffrey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He acknowledged that President Donald Trump was aware the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/video\/2019\/10\/21\/kurds-hurl-insults-and-garbage-at-departing-us-troops\/\" target=\"_blank\">decision to pull U.S. troops from northeastern Syria<\/a> would mean the U.S. \u201cwould have less ability\u201d to work with the SDF against the remnants of ISIS. He later said he was heartened by Trump\u2019s decision not to withdraw all troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe obviously had troops there, the mission was defeating ISIS, so if you remove those troops before that mission is complete, you have a problem\u2015and we do have a problem right now,\u201d Jeffrey said. \u201cWe are working our way through it right now, we are looking at various options for working with the SDF, what kind of military coalition presence will be in the northeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/10\/23\/us-military-will-be-tested-after-syria-withdrawal-key-lawmaker-warns\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-915514166.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US military \u2018will be tested\u2019 after Syria withdrawal, key lawmaker warns<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Rep. Mac Thornberry believes America&#039;s adversaries will use the uncertainty in the Middle East to probe for U.S. military weaknesses.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A day after Jeffrey made headlines testifying in the Senate that Trump never personally consulted him on his decision to withdraw pull U.S. troops, he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Trump had repeatedly consulted with Jeffey\u2019s boss, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have never briefed the president nor would I have ever expected to brief the president. I work for [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo,\u201d Jeffrey said, declining to say what he recommended about before Trump\u2019s decision to pull U.S. military forces out of Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeffrey testified amid bipartisan outrage at that decision and a push by Republican leaders to reverse it. Lawmakers questioned whether it weakened America\u2019s global leadership, displaced thousands of Kurds and empowered Russia, Iran and the Islamic State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Democrat-led panel hammered the decision. Engel voiced his \u201cdisgust\u201d with what he called a \u201cstunning defeat,\u201d an example of Trump\u2019s \u201cwhipsaw foreign policy\u201d and \u201ca body blow to our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAmbassador Jeffrey, you have a very hard job in defending what\u2019s not defendable,\u201d Engel said. \u201cI think that will effect us for years and years, and decades to come. I think this will go down as one of the major American blunders in history. I think what we\u2019ve done there is shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though lawmakers from both sides of the aisle argued the U.S. had a moral obligation to protect its Kurdish partners, Jeffrey said that was never U.S. policy. He had explicitly and repeatedly told the Kurds that the U.S. would not take military action against a NATO ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Short of military force, the U.S. had \u201cpowerful tools,\u201d to dissuade the Turkish incursion, including a U.S.-trade package the Countering America\u2019s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, meant to punish Turkey\u2019s acceptance of the Russian air defense system, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the middle of the hearing, Trump announced from the White House that Turkey had informed the U.S. it will make \u201cpermanent\u201d a five-day cease-fire in Syria. In response, Trump said he\u2019s directing the lifting of economic sanctions on Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Claiming success at the U.S.-brokered effort, Trump said Wednesday, \u201cthis was an outcome created by us.\u201d The cease-fire required Kurdish forces formerly allied with the U.S. against the Islamic State group to move out of a roughly 20-mile zone on the Turkish border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump said, \u201cWe\u2019ve saved the lives of many, many Kurds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump said nearly all U.S. troops will be leaving Syria but some will remain to safeguard oil fields in Syria. Russian forces have since begun joint patrols with Kurdish forces along the Turkish-Syrian border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump said if Turkey breaches the cease-fire the sanctions could be reimposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2019\/10\/23\/us-troops-relocating-from-syria-have-four-weeks-to-stay-in-iraq\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1177310719.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US troops relocating from Syria have four weeks to stay in Iraq<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">U.S. troops \u201ctransiting\u201d in Iraq will depart the country before moving to Kuwait, Qatar, or the United States, Iraq\u2019s Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari told the Associated Press Wednesday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, Russian military police began patrols on part of the Syrian border Wednesday, quickly moving to implement an accord with Turkey that divvies up control of northeastern Syria. The Kremlin told Kurdish fighters to pull back from the entire frontier or else face being \u201csteamrolled\u201d by Turkish forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan echoed those warnings, saying his military would resume its offensive against Kurdish fighters if the new arrangements are not carried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached an agreement Tuesday that would transform the map of northeast Syria, installing their forces along the border and filling the void left by the abrupt withdrawal of American troops. The Kurdish fighters, who once relied on the U.S. forces as protection from Turkey, were given a deadline of next Tuesday evening to pull back from border areas they have not already left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked about an agreement between Russia and Turkey to conduct joint patrols inside Syria, Jeffrey said he was, \u201ccynical,&#8221; and \u201cvery troubled,\u201d adding, \u201cThey aren\u2019t going to accomplish anything good with that agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iraq, meanwhile, closed the door on the U.S. military\u2019s attempt to keep the troops leaving Syria on its soil. Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari told The Associated Press that those troops were only \u201ctransiting\u201d Iraq and would leave within four weeks, heading either to Kuwait, Qatar or the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday fast-tracked his own Senate joint resolution, which would express &#8220;the sense of Congress on the precipitous withdrawal of US Armed Forces from Syria and Afghanistan, and Turkey\u2019s unprovoked incursion into Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It calls for a halt to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, \u201cwhere practical,\u201d and the continued use of air power to target the Islamic State and provide protection to ethnic and religious minorities in northeastern Syria. The construction of the resolution sets up a test for whether lawmakers support a troop presence in Syria, which had been a thorny political prospect for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2019\/10\/21\/us-european-lawmakers-swipe-trump-and-turkey-in-new-syria-joint-statement\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1177221291.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">US, European lawmakers swipe Trump and Turkey in new Syria joint statement<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Top foreign affairs lawmakers from the United States and multiple European allies on Monday condemned both President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw American military forces from Syria and the Turkish invasion that followed.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At Wednesday\u2019s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., railed against the panel for not doing enough to draft a new authorization of the use of military force\u2015which prompted Engel to agree to work with him on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have accused Trump of green-lighting the Turkish incursion, which some described as an \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d operation against the Kurds. Jeffery repeatedly denied both assertions to incredulous lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an exchange with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican critic of the president\u2019s move, Jeffrey said, \u201cWhatever else we\u2019ve done or not done, we did not give a green light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kinzinger replied, \u201cIt was a proverbial green light,\u201d arguing Turkey would not have advanced because it would have endangered U.S. forces stationed near the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Jeffrey said the presence of 25 or so U.S. troops from the path of Turkish forces, \u201cwas not in the Turkish decision chain,\u201d adding later that, \u201cthe Turks would have simply driven around them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Repeatedly, Jeffrey denied a connection between Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw troops and the Turkish incursion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe president only said he would withdraw the troops only after he couldn\u2019t convince Erdogan not to come in,\u201d adding that Trump was protecting the troops as commander-in-chief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 100 Islamic State prisoners have escaped to parts unknown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":113556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"5":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"6":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"7":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"}}},"categories":[8,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3446],"class_list":["post-51587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"VM6WKNDPD5EBTGUTK3NOCWROQU","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2019\/10\/23\/us-does-not-know-where-isis-escapees-are-says-syria-envoy\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US does not know where ISIS escapees are, says Syria envoy - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"More than 100 Islamic State prisoners have escaped to parts unknown.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US does not know where ISIS escapees are, says Syria envoy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"More than 100 Islamic State prisoners have escaped to parts unknown.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2019\/10\/23\/us-does-not-know-where-isis-escapees-are-says-syria-envoy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-23T17:20:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T23:48:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joe Gould\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joe Gould\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/congress\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/23\\\/us-does-not-know-where-isis-escapees-are-says-syria-envoy\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t           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