Iraqi spy chief: ISIS members take refuge in Turkey

Lt. Gen. Saad al-Allaq said ISIS leaders are planning jailbreaks to get manpower to relaunch the terror group.

Senior members of ISIS are plotting mass prison breaks and a resurgence of terror after taking refuge in Turkey, according to the head of Iraqi Military Intelligence.

Lt. Gen. Saad al-Allaq told CNN in an exclusive interview that Iraq had handed dossiers on nine alleged terror leaders to Turkey. The subjects included top financiers with access to "huge" amounts of money to fund operations around the world, he said.

And recent communications from ISIS point to plans to try to break prisoners out of camps and jails across Syria and Iraq, al-Allaq said.

"Huge international efforts should be taken to deal with this issue because these criminals are able to leave these camps and go back to their countries and thus they pose great danger in countries like Europe, Asia and northwest Africa," al-Allaq said.

According to CNN, Al-Allaq worked closely with the CIA on the campaign against ISIS and continues to provide intelligence used to target its remaining leadership.

The general said senior ISIS figures known as "emirs" have access to enormous amounts of cash and were forming new cells in Turkey.

They escaped from ISIS' last stand in Baghouz in eastern Syria earlier this year and bribed their way through SDF lines to relative safety in Gaziantep in southern Turkey, he said.

"Some of its important leadership fled north, I mean in the direction of neighboring countries and into border areas like Gaziantep," he said.

"They have secretly crossed into these areas from the Syrian-Turkish border -- top leaders who have money. They crossed with the help of smugglers by paying large amount of money and have secretly entered Turkish territory."

He added: "Those elements who are right now in Turkey play a key role in the recruitment of fighters and terrorists."

He said a new ISIS mission the terror group codenamed "Break Down the Fences" intended to storm jails where their followers were being held and try to rebuild its structures from there.

Al-Allaq said that if ISIS was successful in regaining control over these vast reserves of supporters the results would be "a catastrophe".