IS ATTACKS SYRIA’S AL-HASAKA PRISON, FREEING MILITANTS

Fri 21 January 2022:

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement that militants from the self-styled “Islamic State” group attacked a Kurdish-run jail in Syria’s al-Hasaka in an attempt to free jihadists linked to the group.

While the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the United Kingdom, reported that “a number of prisoners managed to escape,” the SDF made no mention of any prisoners fleeing.

The Observatory said the SDF has dispatched reinforcements to the prison and cordoned off the area.

Aircraft belonging to the US-led international coalition battling ISIS hovered over the facility and dropped flares in its vicinity, the monitor added.

IS “sleeper cells… infiltrated from the surrounding neighborhoods and clashed with the internal security forces,” according to the US-backed SDF.

A car bomb hit the entrance of the Ghwayran prison and a second blast went off in the vicinity before ISIS militants attacked Kurdish security forces manning the facility, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“A number of prisoners managed to escape,” said the Observatory which relies on a network of sources inside Syria. It did not specify how they managed to break out.

Unconfirmed reports claimed that inmates were killed in the mutiny that erupted ahead of the attack, the latest in a series of attempts to flee SDF prisons.

IS detainees and Kurdish-run jails

According to Kurdish authorities that run the prison, more than 50 nationalities are represented across such prisons that house more than 12,000 IS suspects. Their countries of origin range from France to Tunisia, where authorities are reluctant to take them back over fears of a public backlash.

However, relatives of some detainees claim that among the inmates are young children and others who were arrested on flimsy charges or for refusing to comply with the SDF’s conscription policy.

The Islamic State once controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq, but after a long military battle with Kurdish forces from both countries, who were backed by the US and other powers, they lost most of their territory. The German military provided some training and other non-combat support, but only in Iraqi Kurdistan, not in Syria.

The IS network’s remnants were pushed back to their desert hideouts, where they now harass the Syrian government and its allies.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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