SDF declare victory in week-long ISIS stand off in northeast Syrian prison

Alannah Travers

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The week-long stand off between Islamic State (ISIS) militants and US-backed Kurdish forces has drawn to a close on Wednesday, with thousands of prisoners recaptured and fighting stalled, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in a conflict that has killed at least 181 people.

Fighting continued for the seventh day in and around the surrounding area of al-Sina’a prison, known to locals as Ghweran prison, in Hasaka province, northeast Syria, following an attempted jail-break by ISIS on the building housing around 5,000 of its affiliates on Thursday. Footage circulated by the Syrian North Press Agency on Wednesday depicted an Apache helicopter and sound of fierce gunfire.

By Wednesday afternoon, SDF media head Farhad Shami declared militants previously detained within the prison defeated, with the force having “entire control of the al-Sina'a prison in al-Hasaka and the surrendering of all Daesh terrorists.” According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, fighting in and around the prison since Thursday has killed 181 people, including 124 ISIS jihadists, 50 Kurdish fighters and seven civilians.

Earlier in the day, the SDF announced that a thousand ISIS militants previously detained within the prison had surrendered to the forces battling to retake control, and confirmed the liberation of 23 prison employees, with Shami sharing an image showing medical staff treating a wounded ISIS fighter in the prison.

“Our forces managed to capture more terrorist attackers and forced other mutineers terrorists inside the prison to surrender themselves,” the force said, adding that “the number of terrorists forced to surrender has risen to about 1,000.”

Video footage distributed by SDF Media showed a line of re-captured ISIS militants in orange jumpsuits and shabby grey sweaters.

The US-led International Coalition for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) praised the SDF for its leadership of operations to retake the detention facility on Wednesday, commenting that the “desperate” attack has made ISIS weaker.

There have been concerns for the hundreds of children housed within the detention facilities alongside around 5,000 suspected ISIS fighters. Letta Taylor, the counter terrorism lead at the New-York based Human Rights Watch (HRW), who claims to have spoken with young detainees from Australia and Canada in the detention facility during the conflict, said on Wednesday that they described dead and wounded militants everywhere, and have “had no food or water for days.”

As news broke of the SDF's control of the prison, Taylor added that, “Prisoners desperately need food water medical care.”

Tens of thousands of local residents have been swept up in the chaos as forces battled to retake control of the prison in recent days, with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Syria estimating the number of civilians displaced in the conflict at 45,000.

Updated at: 4.35pm