Islamic State terrorists escape during riot at prison in northeastern Syria
Military aircraft were assisting Syrian forces putting down “uprising” at a detention facility holding Islamic State group fighters, during which some of the prisoners escaped, officials said late Sunday.
U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces sent anti-terrorist forces and other troops to the prison in Hassakeh, in northeastern Syria, said Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
“ISIS terrorists managed to take over the first floor in Hasakah prison removing internal walls & doors,” Bali said on Twitter. “Some of them managed to escape and our forces are searching to capture them.”
SDF troops were still working to suppress riots at the prison, he also said.
The U.S.-led Operation Inherent Resolve was assisting with aerial surveillance at the facility, said Army Col. Myles B. Caggins III, the anti-ISIS coalition’s military spokesman, also on Twitter.
There was “heavy overflight” of coalition warplanes, the Syria-based Rojava Information Center reported.
The prison break started when inmates broke security cameras, minutes after holding up blankets with messages scrawled on them to the U.S.-led coalition and human rights organizations, the independent media organization said on Twitter, citing an official statement.
The number of escapees was not immediately clear, officials said.
“A state of emergency will continue until tomorrow until we have determined where they have gone,” the information center said, quoting a statement.
The prisoners were still in control of the facility’s first floor and planning further escapes, balaclava-wearing SDF officials said at a press conference later outside the prison, the media organization said in a post that included video of the camouflage-clad officials.
The fact that the rioters wrote messages to human rights organizations suggested the unrest may have been linked to concerns over prison conditions and fears of the coronavirus pandemic, the center said. The prison is located in an area of northern Syria where Turkish-backed militias are accused of cutting off the water supply to more than 450,000 people for more than a week.
The coalition does not staff the detention facilities, which have struggled to detain the ISIS-linked captives. Observers have warned of the Kurdish forces’ limitations in holding the about 10,000 prisoners, who they don’t have the capacity to investigate and put through trials. Media reports have described cells crammed with men.
But many European countries have been reluctant to take back their citizens who joined ISIS and fought for the hardline group’s territorial ambitions. About 2,000 of the prisoners are foreign fighters, U.S. officials have estimated.
“The longer ISIS prisoners are held in SDF prisons, the greater the potential for them to organize breakouts,” the Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve said in a January report, citing Pentagon officials.
In addition to the prisoners, camps in northern Syria also hold tens of thousands of women and children who lived under the terrorist group’s “caliphate,” which lost its final territorial stronghold a little more than a year ago in the town of Baghouz.
As Turkey invaded northern Syria last fall, the Kurds warned that they would not have the capacity to both defend themselves and secure the prisons.
ISIS leaders have called on its members and supporters to attack the detention camps and break prisoners free.
In October, more than 100 prisoners with alleged links to ISIS broke out of the prisons during the Turkish incursion, U.S. officials told the Washington Post.
The group‘s ranks have been filled by fighters freed in prison breaks stretching back more than a half-decade, the Post reported.
Despite losing its territorial control in both Iraq and Syria, the group continues to fight an insurgency in both countries.
The prison break on Sunday came as the U.S. pulled out of a third Iraqi base this month, citing successes in battling the terrorist group as allowing the withdrawal.
Source: Stripes
