A US-backed Kurdish-led power mentioned Monday {that a} jail overrun by the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria was now totally below its management, thwarting a harmful plot by the extremists to launch additional, a number of assaults throughout the risky area.
It additionally appealed for the worldwide neighborhood’s assist in taking accountability for the tens of hundreds of IS fighters and their households in detention centres and camps below its management.
The Syrian Democratic Forces mentioned greater than 120 of their fighters and jail staff died within the 10-day standoff on the Gweiran jail, also called al-Sinaa jail, which homes a minimum of 3,000 Islamic State group detainees. Some 374 IS militants, together with the preliminary attackers, have been additionally killed, it added.
The Jan. 20 assault on one of many largest detention amenities in Syria has turned the town of Hassakeh right into a battle zone and compelled hundreds of residents to flee. The preventing drew within the US-led coalition, which carried out airstrikes and deployed American personnel in Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the scene.
It was the largest navy operation by the extremist group for the reason that fall of its self-declared caliphate in 2019 and got here because the militants staged lethal assaults in each Syria and Iraq that stoked fears that IS could also be staging a comeback.
At a press convention Monday, SDF commander Nowruz Ahmad mentioned the IS jail assault aimed toward liberating quite a few terrorist detainees, but additionally was a part of a broader plot that IS had been getting ready for a very long time.
According to seized paperwork and confessions of a number of the attackers, the extremist group had deliberate assaults on different neighbourhoods in Hassakeh, the city of Shaddada and areas of Deir el-Zour in japanese Syria. Also deliberate have been simultaneous assaults on the al-Hol camp, which homes hundreds of households of IS members.
“They (IS) wanted to launch a massive attack on the region, and once again to spread their terror and impose darkness on the people of the region and revive the terrorist organization once again,” Ahmad mentioned.
She additionally accused neighbouring Turkey, an archenemy of the Kurds, of facilitating and aiding within the group of the jail assault however didn’t present proof.
Ahmad mentioned the assault demonstrated the necessity for radical options to the continuing presence of tens of hundreds of IS detainees and their households in northeastern Syria, in addition to expediting the trial and prosecution of IS terrorists.
In Washington, State Department spokesperson Ned Price counseled the SDF for his or her efficient response to the jail assault.
IS’s “desperate and violent tactics are a grave reminder to the world that the terrorist group remains a threat that can and must be defeated,” he mentioned in a press release.
“Due to the effective response of the SDF, in partnership with US and Coalition forces, senior ISIS leaders were captured or killed during the attempt to free detained ISIS members from detention” he added.
