The events of Ghaweran prison… The Whole story: ISIS attack on Al-Sina’a prison

Prepared by: N.A.-S.M.D
Since Thursday, January 20, 2022, the city of Al-Hasakah has been living in a state of war and fear among civilians, coinciding with the events of Ghaweran prison, which resulted in clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Internal Security Forces in the face of ISIS cells in the area, after an attempt by sleeper cells affiliated with ISIS organization, the attack on the prison in an attempt to secure the escape of the organization’s inmates from Al-Sina’a prison in Ghaweran neighborhood in Al-Hasakah.

صورة من داخل مدينة الحسكة بعد فرض حظر التجوال الكلي

The attack planned by the organization began on Thursday evening, through cells from abroad that detonated a car bomb near the prison, followed by the detonation of a motorcycle, with the aim of storming the prison. Started with about 20 people affiliated with ISIS.

اشتباكات في محيط سجن الصناعة بمدينة الحسكة

A statement issued by the Syrian Democratic Forces on that day stated that the attack by ISIS cells was an attempt to release many ISIS leaders and fighters from prison.

Analysts’ opinions indicated that the organization has been working on the operation for about 6 months, and the attack on the prison was accompanied by the insurrection of ISIS elements inside the prison, chaos in the, where some employees and members were captured, which the analysts returned to the fact that the attack was planned and there is coordination between groups affiliated with ISIS inside and outside the prison.

A curfew imposed on Al-Hasakah
The statement issued by the Syrian Democratic Forces following the attack, stated that the internal security forces guarding the prison were able, with the support of the Syrian Democratic Forces, to control the insurrection carried out by ISIS terrorists inside Ghaweran prison in Al-Hasakah, but the statement did not indicate the end of the ongoing operation.

اندلاع اشتباكات بين قسد وخلايا داعش في الحسكة

Inside the prison
The picture was not clear inside the prison, except in the statement of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which indicated that the detainees affiliated with ISIS inside the prison burned the covers and plastic materials inside the dormitories, in an attempt to create chaos and an escape hole and indeed, it has been done. Dozens of the organisation inmates escaped from the prison toward Al-Zohour, “formerly Hosh Al-Ba’er,” neighborhood to hide in civilian homes in Ghaweran neighborhood.

The cordon on the neighborhood of Ghaweran and the support of the coalition
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Internal Security Forces of the Autonomous Administration imposed a security cordon around Al-Zohour neighborhood, south of Al-Hasakah, Thursday/Friday (20-21 January 2022), with the aim of combing the neighborhood and arresting ISIS members hiding in the neighborhood.

The frequency of events in the prison and its surroundings, and the news of the escape of ISIS elements, including armed and unarmed, witnessed the intervention of the International Coalition to support the Syrian Democratic Forces, which began with air support to cover the area, to deter the escape of ISIS elements.

At the same time, al-Zohour neighborhood witnessed clashes between the Syrian Democratic Forces and elements affiliated with ISIS, amid heavy overflights of the international coalition aircraft and the dropping of light bombs from helicopters, to target the fleeing ISIS cells with machine guns, in an attempt to comb the neighborhood and arrest ISIS elements, and the sounds of heavy weapons were resounding. in Al-Hasakah.

ISIS uses civilians as human shields
Doubts are being raised that the organization’s scheme invested in infiltrating members of the prison, as the information indicates that the organization tried to buy members inside and outside the prison who belong to the Asayish forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces, who facilitated the access of the organization’s cells to the prison area and stormed it with booby-trapped cars.

After the signs of failure of the ISIS plan began, the organization, through its cells and the fleeing elements, used civilians as human shields, which impeded the progress of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the neighborhoods, which required the Internal Security Forces to open safe corridors for the exit of civilians from the southern neighborhoods, where the number of evacuated families reached, according to Estimates of more than 3,000 families, after violent clashes erupted on Friday, amid announcing a curfew in all neighborhoods and preventing entry to and from Al-Hasakah.

While dozens of families are still besieged in Al-Zohour neighborhood by ISIS, the besieged families have suffered for several days from losing drinking water and bread.

The combing resulted in the arrest of cells and elements escaping from prison
The Syrian Democratic Forces and the Internal Security Forces managed to impose a security cordon in Al-Zohour neighborhood in Al-Hasakah, and with the support of the International Coalition, they arrested a number of ISIS members fleeing from prison towards the city’s neighborhoods. In an attempt to enhance security, the people of Al-Hasakah neighborhoods formed committees to guard the neighborhoods at night to prevent the infiltration of ISIS members.

Preliminary results of the operation
The continuous clashes for several days resulted in 3 civilians losing their lives with the weapons of ISIS cells, as they entered the neighborhoods near the prison, while the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) announced the loss of comrades for their lives and the wounding of others, while the battles resulted in the killing of dozens of ISIS members.

Human Reality
The cells of the organization targeted the electricity transformer in Al-Zohour neighborhood with the start of the attack on Al-Sina’a prison, which caused a complete power cut to the southern neighborhoods of the city, especially the neighborhoods in which the clashes are taking place, in addition to the water cut off from Al-Hasakah city for more than a week, as a result of stopping the water supply from Allouk water station.

With the imposition of the curfew to prevent the infiltration of ISIS elements, the majority of the city’s residents became without water, as tankers were unable to enter the neighborhoods.

More than 3,000 families left Al-Zohour and Ghaweran neighborhoods towards the safe neighborhoods in the city. The displaced families sought refuge in the homes of their relatives in the rest of the neighborhoods, while 150 families were distributed in the mosques of the Tal Hajar and Al-Talaya’ neighborhoods.

The displaced are facing difficulty in obtaining basic services and foodstuffs, amid low temperatures, while international organizations asked their employees to leave the city of al-Hasakah during the first hours of the attack by ISIS cells on the prison, so that the displaced face extremely difficult conditions with the loss of drinking water and bread. In the city, amid a complete absence of the role of international and local organizations and institutions of Autonomous-Administration, while aid was limited to civil initiatives in Al-Hasakah and Raqqa.

Journalists in the line of fire
In the context of the events, a journalist lost his life, and 3 reporters, while covering the events of Ghaweran prison, were injured, and they were taken to hospitals, and their condition is stable, according to medical sources. The North Press Agency (J.A) reporter was injured while falling from a car while he was driving. He is covering the events, and Hawar Agency correspondent “B. R. was shot with two bullets in the chest and abdomen, in addition to the injury of a member of the media office of the Syriac Military Council, “F. A” was hit by a sniper’s bullet in his hand while covering the events.

A member of the Self-Defense Forces’ media office (Ahmed Nasser) lost his life, as a result of receiving a bullet in the head from a sniper, fired by a member of the organization.

On Saturday, January 22, warplanes of the International Coalition forces flew, while the planes carried out several raids on the locations of the organization’s elements in the vicinity of the prison, and two “Bradley” vehicles were located in the vicinity of the prison.

Resentment and fear of the survival of the al-Sina’a prison in Al-Hasakah
With the start of the attacks of the organization’s cells on the al-Sina’a prison, the people’s talk in the city has begun to revolve around the necessity of moving the prison of ISIS detainees outside the city, removing dangerous elements from densely populated areas, and the need to transfer countries that have members in the prisons of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Clashes are still going on in Al-Zohour neighborhood and the prison’s vicinity, amid heavy overflights by the International Coalition’s warplanes, and the impasse of the organization’s prisoners continues inside the prison, while the Syrian Democratic Forces were able to impose a security cordon on the prison, but the failure to end the insurgency is due to the inmates of the organization inside the prison capturing a number of employees and personnel inside the prison.

It is noteworthy that Ghaweran prison and al-Sina’a in Al-Hasakah holds about 5,000 inmates of ISIS members, who were arrested by the Syrian Democratic Forces during the liberation of the town of Al-Baghouz in the countryside of Deir Al-Zour in 2019. Ghaweran prison, which houses ISIS inmates, witnesses tensions from time to time, and persistent cases of insurrection in the prison..