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2022-01-24 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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Islamic State boasts of daring prison attack in northeast Syria
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[Rudaw] The pickup truck reverses and smashes into the concrete wall behind it, causing a section to break, leaving a hole that reveals the scene of devastation inside an ad-hoc detention facility in the south of Hasakah city housing hardcore Islamic State
 ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) krazed killers. Military vehicles belonging to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are aflame, and smoke can be seen rising around the compound. Cries of "Allah Akbar" can be heard each time the vehicle reverses. A krazed killer steps forward and holds his mobile phone to film the scene inside the facility.
Several videos like this, of Friday's audacious and sophisticated attack on the Senaa prison in Hasaka’s Ghweran neighborhood in northeast Syria, known to locals as Ghweran prison, have circulated on social media for the last four days since a group of around 100 ISIS snuffies snuck into the neighborhood surrounding the prison and attacked the facility where around 10,000 members of ISIS are held by Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
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"Around 30 fighters scattered in our houses and told me that if I said anything, they would kill me and my family, they spoke in Iraqi dialect, they were Iraqis, they seized the mobile phones from people, we saw them on the roof," a resident of Senaa neighborhood told a Rudaw news hound on Friday as he fled along with hundreds of others.
The videos of the attack have been shared hundreds, if not thousands, of times on social media sites including Telegram, Facebook and Instagram. One account posted the video on Saturday night which was shared by 173 people as of Sunday lunchtime, attracting 124 comments and 400 emojis including red hearts, thumbs up, and kisses. "Oh god, may they be victorious," one user commented on the video.
Facebook users who have shared the videos are not new to the platform. One user, Abdullah Beanas Faqir, highlighted a Telegram channel that posts ISIS material. Sifting through his Facebook page, it is clear that Abdullah is an ardent supporter of ISIS. In September, he posted an update on how Moslem women are in the prison of the infidels, referring to the SDF, and how he wished that Allah would facilitate their escape.
The gory videos of the attack display the importance that ISIS snuffies attach to the power of propaganda in order to mobilize their followers and entice others to join their cause via popular social networking sites.
A 2020 study by the Combating Terrorism Center found that three considerations drive jihadi prison assaults and riots. "In planning these types of attacks, jihadis are interested in restoring their force size, releasing incarcerated jihadi leaders or specialists, and/or creating a propaganda win," the institution stated. "Prison assaults and riots are opportunistic. Jihadis exploit profound weaknesses in prison system management, resources, intelligence, and wherewithal in order to conduct attacks."
The video, a little under two minutes in total, displays the inside of the prison where some men appear to be using clubs to hit the guards in a hallway opening up to the cells. Several ISIS snuffies are shown in battle gear, wielding AK47s, with their faces covered as they aim the guns at around a dozen men in the corner. One krazed killer drags what appeared to be an SDF fighter onto the floor and, from there, to the corner. Dozens of prisoners are out of their cells, as loud shouts and the sound of muffled bullets are heard. The camera pans to the left where it shows the bodies of purportedly SDF fighters piled up in the corner.
The SDF, which holds 8,000 Iraqi and Syrian ISIS snuffies and 2,000 imported muscle in 14 detention facilities, mostly in Hasakah and Shaddadi, have said that 17 of their men were killed and many more were maimed, some badly. Videos show dozens of ISIS prisoners who escaped being recaptured by the SDF with the backing of the US-led international coalition. A new video released by ISIS on Telegram on Saturday night shows around two dozen men who identify themselves as SDF fighters captured by the terror group - most of whom are Arab fighters of the Kurdish led army.
According to the international coalition, 61 percent of the detainees are held in two facilities in the Hasakah governorate, in the cities of Hasakah and Shaddadi. "Both are repurposed, ad-hoc facilities," the coalition’s July-September 2021 report on Operation Inherent Resolve states, and the prisons are in the receipt of coalition funds for "improved security, capacity, and conditions."
Riots inside prisons in northeast Syria are not something new. Back in 2020, ISIS prisoners rioted on one occasion and a number escaped on another, both from a prison in Hasakah. The escapees were later recaptured. This latest attack on Ghweran is far more sophisticated and audacious, and reminiscent of large scale prison breaks from Iraq prior to the group capturing large swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014.
ISIS has also become more brazen in recent months in its hit-and-run attacks in Iraq. On one night alone in December, ISIS snuffies killed seven peshmerga fighters and three civilians in an attack in the Makhmour area, close to Erbil in the Kurdistan Region.
On Friday, as the snuffies took over the prison, a unit of the Iraqi army was wiped out by the snuffies in Diyala province. The attack has made Iraqi and Kurdish officials across the border worried. Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Sunday that he has directed Peshmerga and police forces to shore up their defenses along the border with northeast Syria.
The anti-ISIS coalition in Syria have assisted the SDF to repel the attack and recapture the escapees. In Iraq, coalition officials were more upbeat about the capabilities of Iraqi forces to defend themselves. "The distance and the capability of the Iraqi border guards, the Peshmerga and the Iraqi army, there is enough security and enterprise to prevent any threat from them crossing into Iraq," Director of the Military Advisory Group in Iraq for the US-led coalition Nick Duchich told Rudaw’s Ranja Jamal on Sunday.
Fighting continues in the south of Hasakah to recapture hundreds of snuffies who fled the detention facility in Friday’s attack. More than 4,000 people have been displaced as a result of the ensuing battle.
A resident near the prison said warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition flew over the prison earlier Sunday, breaking the sound barrier. The resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces were heard calling on IS militants in the prison and in surrounding buildings to turn themselves in. A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said helicopters threw fliers over the city, urging residents to report suspicious activities.
The militants have taken cover in residential areas surrounding the prison, including in Zuhour neighborhood which was cordoned off by security forces. Hundreds of civilians fled the area for safety.
The attack launched Thursday was the biggest by IS militants since the fall of the group's ``caliphate'' in 2019. Its demise came after IS lost its last territory in Syria in following a yearslong military campaign backed by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the prison break on its Aamaq news service Friday, describing it as ongoing.
In an ambitious attack, more than 100 militants armed with heavy machine guns and vehicles rigged with explosives attacked the facility aiming to free their comrades. A car bomb was detonated nearby at a petroleum warehouse, creating a diversion and leaving fire and smoke in the air for two days.
A video posted by the militants late Saturday showed vehicles ramming through what appears to be the walls of the prison, creating large holes. Dozens of men were seen walking in the facility in the dark, seemingly escaping the prison. The Kurdish-led forces said Friday they have so far arrested over 100 inmates who escaped but the total number of fugitives remains unclear.
Freeing convicts and imprisoned comrades has been a main tactic of the group. During their 2014 surge that overwhelmed territory in Iraq and Syria, IS carried out multiple prison breaks.
In another video posted on the IS news service, the militants showed two dozen prison staff, some in military uniforms, taken hostage, including some who appeared bruised and beaten. One militant read out a statement to the camera and another stood guard with what seemed to be either a saw or a machete. Both militants were masked.
The Kurdish forces said late Saturday the men were probably among the prison kitchen staff with whom they lost contact since the assault began late Thursday.
The SDF sent reinforcements, including anti-terrorism units and internal security, to the area, according to Ali. He said about 100 militants attacked the prison but it is not clear how many militants from sleeper cells and fugitives are taking part in the ongoing operation.
In its version of the attack, IS quoted one of its militants in a statement posted late Saturday on its news service who said the attack began with two foreign suicide bombers who detonated two trucks at the gate of the prison and along its walls, causing major damage and casualties. Then militants fanned out, first heading to the prison towers and the petroleum warehouse. A second group attacked a Kurdish post nearby while two other groups clashed with nearby patrols and cut supply lines to undermine the prison defenses.
The assault coincided with riots inside the prison, where militants seized weapons and held guards and prison staff hostage, the militant group said, claiming that it freed more than 800 militants, some of whom are taking part in the ongoing operation. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2022-01-24 01:35||
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