Prisoners Collaborating After The Turkish Earthquake: 20 People Escapeed From Syrian Prisons, The Majority Of ISIS Members

ISIS illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/VOA)

JAKARTA - At least 20 prisoners escaped, the majority of ISIS members, after an uprising in a northwestern Syrian prison after a magnitude 7.8 magnitude deadly earthquake rocked Turkey on Monday.

The military police prison in Rajo City near the Turkish border houses about 2.000 inmates, with about 1,300 of them suspected ISIS fighters, the source said.

The prison also houses fighters from Kurdish-led forces.

"After the earthquake occurred, Rajo was affected by inmates starting to rebel and control parts of the prison," said an official at the Rajo prison, which is controlled by a pro-Turkey faction.

"About 20 detainees escaped... believed to be ISIS militants," the official continued.

An earthquake measuring 7.8 followed by dozens of aftershocks in the region caused damage to the prison, with walls and doors cracked, the source added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Britain-based war monitoring agency, said it could not verify whether prisoners had escaped, but confirmed there was an uprising.

At least 1,444 people died on Monday across Syria, after a devastating earthquake centered in southwestern Turkey, the government and rescue said.

In the northwestern part of the rebel-held country, at least 733 people were killed and more than 2,100 injured, according to rescue group White Helmets.

The incident in Rajo comes after the ISIS attack in December at a security complex in the former Syrian de facto capital Raqa, which aims to free fellow extremists from prison there.

Six members of Kurdish-led security forces who took control of the area were killed in the thwarted attack.

The conflict in Syria began in 2011 with a brutal suppression of peaceful protests and escalated to attracting foreign powers and global extremists.

Nearly half a million people have been killed, and the conflict has forced about half of the country's population before the war fled their homes, with many seeking refuge in Turkey.