Security

SDF arrest two ISIS suspects who tried to escape Hasakah prison

The SDF said, "our forces and the relevant security services are moving with great precision and sensitivity to contain these circumstances."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/01/21 13:21

Two ISIS prisoners were arrested by SDF forces (Photo: SDF Press Office)

Syria SDF Hasakah ISIS Ghweran prison Syria Internal Security Forces

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Special units of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) arrested two ISIS suspects who tried to escape Hasakah's Ghweran prison facility, the Rojava Media Centre (RMC) reported.

ISIS attacked a detention facility holding suspected terrorists in the Syrian city of Hasakah with an explosive-laden car late Thursday.

Following the bombing, the SDF denied reports that around 15 to 20 ISIS members had escaped Hasakah's al-Sina'a prison facility. The SDF also said its fighters are working to recapture the fleeing individuals.

"The exceptional security conditions in the vicinity of Al-Hasakah prison and nearby neighborhoods continue after the recent attack carried out by ISIS terrorist cells on Ghweran prison in the city of Al-Hasakah," the SDF said in a Thursday night press release.

"Terrorist cell elements shoot randomly in the Al-Zohour neighborhood (Hosh Al-Baar) and the prison perimeter, in an attempt to take advantage of the situation and open loopholes to escape from the area," read the release.

"Several cases of threats to the people of the Al-Zohour neighborhood were recorded by terrorist cells and their collaborators, as well as pressure on the people to hide the terrorists in their homes."

The SDF said, "our forces and the relevant security services are moving with great precision and sensitivity to contain these circumstances, and they call once again on the people of the neighborhoods near the prison not to harbor the ISIS cell members who carried out the attack and expel them."

Thursday's attack on the Hasakah prison "is likely to make waves across Western capitals, though it seems there has not been a major prison break, as was initially reported," Rojava Information Centre researcher Sasha Hoffman earlier told Kurdistan 24.

During the assault, "at least two explosions and heavy gunfire were heard" in Hasakah as a prison riot continued, Hoffman said.

The scenes were "reminiscent of the thwarted attack in November, when Asayish arrested an ISIS cell of 5 and confiscated a car bomb and dozens of weapons meant to be employed to free the roughly 5,000 ISIS prisoners inside Sina'a Prison," the RIC researcher added.

In an update on Friday morning, the SDF said that "the Internal Security Forces (ISF), enabled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), managed to handle the insurgence in Daesh (ISIS) detainees prison of Geweran in al-Hasaka."

"In an attempt to create chaos, the Daesh detainees burned blankets and plastic materials inside dormitories," read the statement.

"The members of terrorist cells who attacked the prison from outside fled to the al-Zohour neighborhood near the prison and hid in civilian homes, and our forces imposed a security cordon around the area."

The SDF has over 14,000 suspected ISIS fighters in captivity, including 2,000 foreign nationals. So far, most European countries have refused to take back their foreign nationals.