These prisons are mainly located in Hasaka, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, and are under the administration of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes a Kurdish majority with other components.
“Ghweran” prison, on the southern side of the Ghweran neighborhood in Hasaka, is the largest prison in the world that includes ISIS, and contains 5,000 of the most dangerous elements of the organization. It is a former government prison, and it is the central prison in the city.
And near Ghweran, there is the “Sina’a Prison” in a residential area, after it was the “Industrial High School”, as it turned into a prison for ISIS elements after the fall of the last strongholds of the organization in Al-Baghouz in March 2019, and there are more than a thousand ISIS militants in it.
Last November, the prison witnessed riots, chaos, and disobedience by prisoners, which were met with a state of alertness from the strength of the Democratic Alliance.
To the east of the city of Al-Shaddadi in the southern countryside of Hasaka, there is the “Kamba Al-Bulgar” prison, which houses 5,000 ISIS militants, and it is in a fortified military area near the American base in the area, and it is heavily guarded by the “SDF”.
Also in Al-Shaddadi there is Al-Shaddadieh prison, which contains hundreds of ISIS militants.
In the northern countryside of al-Hasakah, the “Derik/Al-Malikiyah” prison, which the villagers call “Dark”; That is, the small church in Kurdish, and it is located a few meters underground, and contains hundreds of ISIS.
As for the “Al-Kasra” prison, it follows the western countryside of Deir Ezzor, and it contains 500 ISIS fighters, one of the most important leaders of the terrorist organization. It is located in the middle of a security and military area near the US Koniko base in Deir Ezzor.
In the countryside of Qamishli, a prison called “Rmelan” houses hundreds of ISIS militants, and “Nafkir” prison in the city of Qamishli, and in September 60 ISIS militants were transferred from it to a prison in Hasaka.
In the city of Raqqa, there is the city’s central prison, which houses hundreds of ISIS prisoners.
During the period that witnessed the control of the “SDF” forces over the last strongholds of the terrorist organization in the Baghouz area, with the support of the international coalition forces to combat terrorism, hundreds of ISIS fighters were captured, in addition to dozens of leaders who surrendered themselves voluntarily, most notably “Abu Ahmed al-Fransi” and “Abu Muhammad” The American” and “Abu Zaid Al-Muhajir”.
12 thousand ISIS
According to Kurdish journalist Akram Barakat, the city of Hasaka alone includes 7 prisons, the most prominent of which is Ghweran prison, which is the largest and contains 5,000 ISIS militants, and Al-Sina’a prison is the second largest prison that houses the terrorist organization’s members and has a thousand ISIS prisoners.
He added to “Sky News Arabia”, that “the prisons as a whole house 12,000 ISIS prisoners of 70 nationalities, most of them are of Syrian and Iraqi nationality, which made it difficult for the SDF forces to protect prisons, given their current capabilities, as the process of protecting prisons is a difficult and complex process.”
As for the reason for ISIS targeting Ghweran prison, Barakat says that “there are the largest number of the organization’s members, as well as some of its leaders.”
The Autonomous Administration areas are witnessing a state of alert following the ISIS attack on the “Ghweran” prison, in anticipation of further attacks on the prisons, especially with the continuation of clashes, until Saturday, between the “SDF” forces and ISIS elements.
Last June, the leader of ISIS, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi, called on the organization’s members to focus their efforts on getting the prisoners out of the prisons they are holding in Syria; This means that there is a risk of targeting prisons.
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