SDF actions cause US-backed foes to threaten releasing ISIS detainees
4 Min Read
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are targeting Deir Ezzor militants who are in turn threatening to release ISIS detainees in retaliation.
-
US-backed Syrian Democratic (SDF) soldiers keep watch by the prison that was attacked by ISIS militants in Hassakeh, Syria, Feb. 8, 2022 (AP)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have apprehended several leaders of the Deir Ezzor Military Council after raiding their residences in the Khashman and Al-Aziziya neighborhoods in Al-Hasakah city, coinciding with the encirclement of the Ghuweiran neighborhood and the Industry Prison, sources familiar with the matter told Al Mayadeen.
"We are besieged in the headquarters of the Deir Ezzor Military Council in the Khashman neighborhood, north of Al-Hasakah, by SDF forces," said Jalal Al-Khabil, a senior commander in the Deir Ezzor Military Council.
Al-Khabil further revealed that the head of the Deir Ezzor Military Council, Abu Khawla, was lured to a senior meeting in the rural areas of Al-Hasakah and subsequently arrested by SDF personnel.
Urging his tribe members to surround SDF headquarters in Deir Ezzor, Al-Khabil demanded the release of the detained leadership members and the lifting of the blockade on their headquarters in Al-Hasakah.
The Deir Ezzor Military Council is considered one of the factions closely aligned with the United States and was formerly associated with the US-backed SDF.
The United States has recently been attempting to reconcile this faction with both Turkish-aligned groups the factions operating in Al-Tanf. Meetings between US military officials and leaders of these factions took place in Ankara just a few days ago.
Meanwhile, intense clashes have erupted between SDF elements and residents of the Al-Hussan and Al-Azba towns in the eastern Syrian countryside of Deir Ezzor, an Al Mayadeen correspondent reported.
In light of the apprehensions, the brother of the Deir Ezzor Military Council's chief threatened to release all ISIS detainees under his grip if the SDF did not release the elements they detained from his faction.
SDF announced Sunday the launch of a wide-scale security operation aimed at bolstering its region in the eastern regions, commencing from Deir Ezzor amid a general state of alert in the city of Al-Hasakah, following reports of an uprising by ISIS terrorists in the south of the city.
The US-backed SDF has put its forces on high alert and deployed patrols in most neighborhoods of Al-Hasakah while checking the ID cards of pedestrians. They indicated that the "alert is concentrated around the Ghuweiran neighborhood and Industrial Secondary School prisons in the south," sources familiar with the matter told Al Mayadeen.
SDF "informed the owners of businesses in the neighborhoods under its control that they had to shutter their shops within an hour. It is expected that a general curfew will be declared in the city of Al-Hasakah," they added.
In 2022, ISIS carried out an attack on the Industrial Secondary School prison, during which more than 800 members managed to escape from the prison after detonating a car and a motorcycle at the entrance of the prison.
Later in the year, Al Mayadeen sources reported that the Raqqa Central Prison was attacked and that scores, maybe hundreds of prisoners, including ISIS members, had escaped.
Reliable sources reported to Al Mayadeen in June that 25 ISIS terrorists detained in a prison belonging to the so-called "military police" of the Turkish-backed militant groups in the city of Ras Al-Ain, north of Al-Hasakah Governorate, managed to escape from the prison at dawn on Friday.
The sources indicated that the number of those who managed to escape are one Saudi, one Kuwaiti, 11 Iraqis, and 13 Syrians, adding that their whereabouts remain unknown, amid expectations of their success in reaching the city of Ceylanpinar, adjacent to Ras Al-Ain.
