ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) carried out a vast investigation campaign in its own ranks, arresting leaders and members alike following a failed major prison break attempt by the Islamic State (ISIS) in the city of Hasaka, northeast Syria (Rojava) last month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Saturday.
According to SOHR, the SDF launched a major campaign to clear their ranks from “corruption” following the events that transpired in the al-Sina'a prison in Hasaka around two weeks ago, when ISIS attempted to free thousands of its hardcore militants in an audacious, yet foiled attack.
According to SOHR, the Kurdish-led force arrested a leader within their own ranks who "lives in a villa and has a large number of private cars in Raqqa," and hails from the Kurdish town of Kobane in northern Syria.
The force also arrested another leader who holds Turkish citizenship as well as ten members in Ain Issa district, the seat of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
SOHR added that the SDF intends to carry out further arrests against their own affiliates following the attempted prison siege in Hasaka on January 20.
ISIS attempted to break thousands of its affiliates and members out of al-Sina'a prison, known to locals as Ghweran prison. The SDF arrested 26 people who were "active in smuggling and transferring detainees out of Ghweran prison," it said in a tweet on Sunday.
On Monday, the SDF raised the death toll from the brazen prison break attempt to 495 people, with 121 SDF fighters, prison guards, and civilians, as well as 374 ISIS members.
Two weeks after the attack, US President Joe Biden announced the elimination of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in a daring overnight operation on Thursday in the town of Atmeh, north of Idlib.
On Saturday, Mazloum Abdi, general commander of the SDF, said "the killings of Al-Qurayshi and al-Baghdadi in Idlib show that ISIS enjoys support and protection outside SDF-held areas."
Abdi further added that in these areas, ISIS are "given training camps and re-branded as popular resistance or opposition factions."
