SDF says no breach within prison guard ranks during ISIS Hassakeh raid

More attacks remain a concern as terror group re-emerges

The US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said there was no breach within the ranks of prison guards at the Al Sina’a detention facility in Hassakeh, where ISIS launched a deadly raid to free detainees on January 20.

Speaking to The National, SDF spokesman Farhad Shami said it was too early to determine whether any of the 3,500 ISIS inmates were co-ordinating with militants outside of the prison.

The SDF’s final death toll stood at 121 people, including 77 prison guards, 40 SDF members and four civilians. More than 370 ISIS members were killed and hundreds more surrendered in the seven-day battle that ensued in the Ghwayran neighbourhood of Hassakeh.

”Had there been a breach within the ranks of the SDF or the prison guards, the battle would have ended very differently,” Mr Shami said.

He acknowledged the “strategic and highly organised” nature of the January attack.

In December, the SDF said it captured one of the most dangerous ISIS masterminds, Mohammed Abdul Awwad, who was planning a similar raid on Al Sina’a prison.

The details of Abdul Awwad’s plan bore an eerie resemblance to the one that took place less than a month later, even down to the use of suicide bombers and armed vehicles.

“It‘s true that we revealed two plans similar to the one that took place recently but the measures we had in place prevented the raid from resulting in an ISIS takeover of Hassakeh, Deir Ezzor and other areas,” Mr Shami said.

The SDF spokesman said “technical weaknesses” made the January raid a reality.

”We need technological equipment. We have 12,000 ISIS members [to secure] and long borders with Iraq which need cameras and aerial surveillance, none of which are currently available to us,” he said.

US-SDF relationship

The US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS assisted with the capture of Al Awad and in containing the fallout from the prison raid in Hassakeh.

Former coalition spokesman Col Myles Caggins, currently a military fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The National US forces will probably remain in Syria until ISIS is defeated.

“The attack on the Al Sina’a prison is quite serious. ISIS has not been able to mount any sustained attack since they lost the battle in Baghouz in 2019 and here they are in January 2022 with a co-ordinated attack both inside and outside a detention facility that lead to the release of dozens of terrorists,” Col Caggins said.

”The world needs to take notice. ISIS remains a threat and the ideology continues.”

The US government voiced concern about the state of detention facilities holding ISIS members.

A Department of Defence budget committee noted several weaknesses regarding SDF-run prisons.

“The makeshift detention facilities are overcrowded and vulnerable to the types of ISIS attacks that led to the rise of the organisation in 2012,” the committee said in a report on defence spending.

”The committee supports efforts of the Department of Defence and international partners to fortify and construct detention facilities to alleviate crowding, enhance humane detention and ensure the security of dangerous detainees."

In another report last year, Operation Inherent Resolve, the US military’s intervention against ISIS, said the state of the detention facilities and poor living conditions “increased the chance of breakouts”.

The SDF spokesman said no senior ISIS leaders managed to escape during the raid in Hassakeh and that detainees under the age of 18 had been moved to another prison.

While the circumstances surrounding the prison are still under investigation, the attack showed ISIS remains a serious threat.

“The territorial fight against ISIS was over in 2019 but the ideology remains. ISIS sleeper cells are the most dangerous threat and actually mobilised after the operation as provocative, extremist rhetoric grew sharper within ISIS circles on social media,” Mr Shami said.