ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday called on Damascus to hand over Islamic State (ISIS) prisoners of Iraqi origin to the Iraqi government, following breaches at ISIS detention facilities amid ongoing clashes in the border province of Hasaka, asserting that he holds Baghdad and Erbil “fully responsible” for any border violations. 

Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria (Rojava) on Monday lost control of a large detention facility housing tens of thousands of former ISIS fighters in Hasaka amid clashes with Damascus-affiliated factions. Footage later circulated of released detainees, with both sides accusing the other of the security breach.

“The Syrian authorities must be asked to hand over the Iraqi detainees to the Iraqi government,” Sadr said in a statement, calling on the security forces to “raise their level of readiness and remain vigilant.”

“I will hold the central government and the local governments bordering Syria fully responsible for any border violations,” including the smuggling of weapons as well as the entry and exit of “terrorist elements,” he added, referring to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Hours prior, Iraq’s interior ministry announced that “all Iraqi borders are secure, and our borders with Syria are the most secure and fortified.”

On Sunday, Sadr issued a similar statement, calling for reinforcements and the protection of border crossings and advising “the political forces in northern Iraq against direct intervention, as this gives terrorism a pretext to violate Iraqi territory and attack our holy sites.”

Foza Alyusuf, a senior member of Rojava's ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD), called on the Kurds of the Kurdistan Region and Turkey to head to the border crossings, asserting that “Today is the day of defending national dignity.”

Clashes between Kurdish-led forces and Damascus-linked factions are ongoing in Hasaka, a province bordering Iraq that houses the largest number of ISIS members in its various detention facilities, most notoriously al-Hol, posing a major security concern.

The SDF has for years been in charge of many camps and prisons holding ISIS affiliates and family members in Rojava, after the Kurdish-led and US-backed force fought the lion’s share of the battle and territorially defeated ISIS in Syria in 2019.

The Kurdish-led Rojava administration has repeatedly warned of “real danger” with the factions, harboring an extremist Islamist ideology, attacking the Kurdish-led forces and taking over the prisons. The SDF has also released footage purporting to show the factions releasing ISIS detainees.