(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Islamic State members fled a jail in northern Syria after it was abandoned by the YPG Kurdish militia, following warnings that the cross-border incursion could lead to mass breakouts of thousands of jihadist prisoners.

“There was only one Daesh jail in the area” where the Turkish military is operating, Akar said Monday, using an acronym for the jihadist group. “When we went there, we saw that it was emptied by the YPG and that members of Daesh were allowed to escape.”

As President Donald Trump gave Turkey the nod to begin its long-threatened military operation into northeastern Syria earlier this month, he also handed Ankara the responsibility for dealing with all the imprisoned members of Islamic State in the area. Turkey has responded by saying it will only deal with the jihadists inside a buffer zone it’s trying to carve out near its border.

Meanwhile, Kurds have complained they may not be able to guard all the Islamic State militants in makeshift camps and jails in northeastern Syria if Turkey’s military seizes nearby areas.

Akar’s comments show Turkey considered only one Islamic State prison to be inside its area of responsibility.

After saying that the YPG has abandoned the prison so that jihadists could flee, Akar said: “We have detected this with visual evidence such as photos and videos. We have discussed these with our counterparts.”

Minutes after Akar’s comments, Trump tweeted that Syrian Kurds may be releasing some Islamic State prisoners to “get us involved.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Onur Ant in Istanbul at oant@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Paul Abelsky, Karl Maier

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