Syria Urges EU to Take Its Citizens Back as ISIS Prison Breaks Threaten Chaos
A senior official at al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa, Syria, pleaded with European and US officials on Thursday to take control of the facility, before clashes between Syrian government troops and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) create more escape opportunities for Islamic State terrorists.
Syrian officials are also suggesting Western powers take care of foreign-born ISIS fighters they have left languishing in Syrian prisons for years.
Chiya Kobane, Al-Aqtan security chief job a video message Thursday in which he said the SDF could no longer manage the facility and so the world must step in and secure ISIS prisoners.
“We have protected al-Aqtan prison until now, but it has reached its limits. Water and electricity are cut off, fuel is exhausted and food supplies are running low,” the security chief said.
Kobané pleaded for an “international party” to “take control of the prison so that we can reach our security zones under international guarantees”. He said the SDF held out as long as they could because they recognized their “humanitarian duty” to secure the prison.
The Kurdish-led SDF were struggle with the Syrian army since December, as the central government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa seeks to bring the autonomous Kurdish region fully under its control. Each side systematically accuses the other of provoking conflicts and violating ceasefire agreements.
The SDF, a vital ally of the United States and Europe against the Islamic State, has maintained for a long time prison camps where ISIS terrorists and their family members are held. Many of these prisoners are foreign fighters who came from other countries to join ISIS in Syria at its height. Their home governments are reluctant to take them back, in part because they believe IS recruits, their wives and children, could pose security risks.
The SDF began withdrawing from prison camps this week, under intense assault by Syrian government forces. Prison break involving hundreds of IS jihadists occurred at al-Shaddadi prison camp on Monday.
Damascus accused the SDF of releasing some of its prisoners to create a security crisis to pressure the government, while the SDF accused jihadist fighters working for the Syrian army of voluntarily releasing IS prisoners.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said On Thursday, it began moving thousands of IS prisoners from northeastern Syria to Iraq, a surprise move that eased some of the security risks linked to the SDF’s clash with Damascus. The first 150 transferred prisoners reportedly arrived at a “safe location” in Iraq on Thursday, with up to 7,000 others awaiting transfer from Syria.
Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said it would “start taking appropriate legal measures against defendants who are handed over and placed in appropriate penitentiary facilities.”
“Legal procedures will be applied to them without exception, so as to safeguard the rights of the victims and respect the principle of the rule of law in Iraq,” the council said.
An Arab security source said The National As of Thursday, CENTCOM does not fully trust the SDF or the Syrian army to secure ISIS prisoners.
“The SDF appears to have released IS prisoners from a prison in al-Shaddadi to create chaos. At the same time, Washington was concerned about the presence of IS sympathizers among government forces and their tribal allies,” the source said.
The Arab source added that President Sharaa “knows how to deal with ISIS prisoners,” but that the force he has deployed to attack the Kurdish-controlled Syrian region includes jihadist elements who are not as trustworthy.
“In any case, this was not an Al Shara war against ISIS and most of the prisoners are not Syrian. Washington was obliged to move some ISIS detainees out of Syria, regardless of who controls power there,” the source said.
“There are certainly rogue members of the Syrian Arab Army who are extremists,” confirmed Myles Caggins, former spokesman for the coalition against ISIS.
Iraqi officials did not seem happy to see the enormous burden of ISIS prisoners fall so suddenly into their laps, but they appreciated the need to keep these dangerous detainees under lock and key.
“We have no choice but to bring them here under our direct supervision, rather than leaving them in a fluid situation that could pose a threat to our national security,” an Iraqi security official said. The National.
