JIHADI BRIDE COULD 'RUN FREE WITHIN DAYS'

SHAMIMA Begum could "run free within days" as the guards holding the jihadi bride and thousands of Isis terrorists in a Syrian refugee camp come under attack.

- Richard Ashmore

In the past 24 hours the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces running the detention camps have been hit by Turkish airstrikes and ground assaults by HTS, the new Syrian government.

Now Begum, below, may be set free by guards amid huge unrest following the ousting of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad last month.

Donald Trump threatened to withdraw 2,000 US troops supporting the SDF then backed down in 2019 after allies said it would leave Kurds unprotected.

But after winning his second term in the White House the US President-elect said recently Syria was "not our fight".

Current US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said yesterday its forces were still needed in the region to protect detention camps holding ex-Isis gunmen. Up to 10,000 are under guard and at least 2,000 are considered very dangerous.

Begum, 25, has been held in Syria since 2019 when she was captured during the war against Isis. She had travelled from London to join Islamic State in 2015 as a 15-year-old schoolgirl.

One Kurdish-Syrian ex-camp guard told the Daily Express the decision over Begum's release could be taken out of the West's control. He explained: "If HTS and the Turks get close to the prison camps, the SDF could release all the prisoners. If the SDF feel they can't defend the camps because they need to defend their homes and loved ones, they will open the gates of hell.