U.S. captures ISIS leader in Syria who helped fighters escape, CENTCOM says

U.S. troops and allies captured an ISIS leader who helped members of the militant group's fighters escape from a detention center in Syria, the United States Central Command announced Monday.

The big picture: American troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led coalition, captured ISIS facilitator Khaled Ahmed al-Dandal on Sunday — days after "five ISIS Foreign Terrorist Fighter detainees (Two Russians, two Afghans, and one Libyan) escaped from the Raqqah Detention Facility," per a CENTCOM statement.

The SDF recaptured two of the escapees, but CENTCOM said three remained at large.

Why it matters: ISIS was ousted from the last territory it held in the Middle East in 2019, in Baghouz, Syria, but CENTCOM warns that the group's "primary objective ... remains to free their fighters currently held in detention and subsequently fuel an ISIS revival."