Syria Kurds Hunt Down Jihadists after Prison Attack #MiddleEast https://t.co/DZ5d17989e
— Naharnet (@Naharnet) January 27, 2022
Kurdish-led forces on Thursday found dozens of jihadists holed up in a Syrian prison as they carried out mop-up operations after recapturing the facility from 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 Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group jihadists.
An IS assault on the sprawling Ghwayran prison complex near the city of Hasakeh on January 20 sparked six days of fighting, in violence that claimed more than 200 lives.
It was the most high-profile attack launched by the jihadists since the loss of their "caliphate" nearly three years ago.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said they had retaken full control of Ghwayran prison on Wednesday, ending battles that turned the largest city in northeastern Syria into a war zone.
But search operations the next day found around 60-90 jihadists still holed up in one wing of the prison, the SDF said, adding that 3,500 IS inmates had so far surrendered to its forces.
"Our forces have made a call for safe surrender... and in case they did not surrender, we will deal with them firmly," it said in a statement.
Hasakeh, meanwhile, entered it's fourth day in lockdown with US-backed Kurdish forces blocking all entrances to the city to keep fleeing jihadists from crossing into other areas.
Around 45,000 people had fled their homes in Hasakeh to escape the violence, according to the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
, with many taking shelter in mosques or wedding halls inside the city.
#BREAKING/#North_Press
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) January 27, 2022
North Press correspondent: Global @coalition aircraft renews targeting al-Sina'a prison in #Syria's #Haskah. pic.twitter.com/5u4zbxonYq
| More from Rudaw: |
"Following regaining control of the al-Sina’a prison and imposing surrender on about 3,500 terrorist detainees involved in the last mutiny to support the terrorist attackers coming from outside, our forces began thorough sweep operations and security and military clearing operations," the statement read.
Fighting continued for the seven days in and around the surrounding area of the prison, officially named al-Sina’a prison, and known to locals as Ghweran prison, in Hasaka province, northeast Syria, following an attempted jail-break by ISIS on the building housing thousands of its affiliates. Footage circulated by the Syrian North Press Agency on Wednesday depicted an Apache helicopter and sound of fierce gunfire.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, fighting in and around the prison since last Thursday had killed 181 people, including 124 ISIS jihadists, 50 Kurdish fighters and seven civilians.
The SDF said about 3,000 inmates have surrendered since its operation to retake the prison's northern wing began three days ago.
Kurdish officials said a large number of children were freed Wednesday but their fate remained unclear. Rights groups and at least one child detainee from inside the prison say many children were killed and injured in the clashes. Rights groups have criticized the SDF for keeping the children in adult facilities or holding them without trials in the first place.
In a statement, SDF said the children had been kept in separate dormitories from the adults, and were detained as an ``interim measure'' for their safety and the safety of the community until a solution for them is found.
At least 300 foreign child detainees are believed to be held in the Gweiran facility. Thousands more, mostly under the age of 12, are held with their mothers in locked camps in other parts of northeastern Syria on suspicion of being families of IS members. Most countries have refused to repatriate them, with only 25 out of 60 countries taking back their children, some without their mothers.
In the week of fighting, dozens of fighters from both sides have been killed, the U.S.-led coalition has carried out nearly a dozen airstrikes and thousands of civilians living nearby have been displaced.
Siamand Ali, a spokesman for SDF, said the militants were hiding in the basement of the northern section.
A coalition official said Thursday that detainees of the prison known as Gweiran or al-Sinaa are being secured in a ``new, hardened facility'' nearby where biometrics will be used by the SDF to enroll them. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the coalition continues to advise and assist the SDF in the operation. The militants had also targeted the new facility in their initial assault but failed.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll from the struggle at over 200, including over 150 militants and more than 50 fighters from the Kurdish-led force. At least seven civilians were killed in the fighting, the Observatory said. The SDF said preliminary information put the force's death toll at 35.
The SDF, backed by U.S.-led coalition Bradley Fighting Vehicles and air support, had been closing in on the prison wing still controlled by the militants for a few days. Fighters from the SDF and other security teams used loudspeakers to call on the militants to surrender.
Kurdish officials said about 200 militants attacked the prison with car bombs and suicide belts while activating sleeper cells hiding in residential areas around the prison. In one video released by IS, the militants rammed vehicles against the prison walls. At one point, a car bomb was detonated in a petroleum warehouse near the prison, sparking a fire that lasted a couple of days.
| Finally, from The Times of Israel: |