Islamic State fighters pledge to fight to end as Kurdish forces impose week-long curfew

Fazel Hawramy

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) has imposed a week-long curfew in Hasaka, starting on Monday, as their forces continue their attempt to quash a riot now into its fifth day inside a detention facility housing hundreds of hardcore Islamic State (ISIS) militants, as well as children claimed to be affiliated with the group. The curfew comes as a new video emerges from inside the detention facility, published on ISIS’ Telegram channel, showing dozens of armed ISIS fighters within the prison pledging to fight to the end.

Over two hundred ISIS fighters broke into al-Sina’a prison in Hasaka’s Ghweran neighborhood on Thursday night, known to locals as Ghweran prison, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Hundreds of fighters inside the detention facility housing thousands of prisoners affiliated with the terror group staged a riot, smashing walls and burning oil storage facilities.

Twenty-seven members of the SDF have been killed, according to a statement issued on Sunday by the SDF General Command regarding the attack on al-Sina’a prison. Many more have been wounded in the five days of violence that has rocked northeast Syria and caused consternation across the border in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.

While the prison “is under our forces’ control,” the statement said, the SDF are continuing operations in the surrounding area due to the existence of ”two or three terrorist cells” within the Ghweran neighborhood. “Our forces are working to impose their control inside the prison as well,” it added.

The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria announced on Sunday that they have imposed a total ban on movement within the Hasaka province following the attack on the prison in the city. The authorities said that the ban did not impact municipality services, bakeries, fuel stations and health centers. Kurdish authorities have also tightened security in other areas, including in the city of Qamishli, to counter any possible attempt by ISIS to cause instability in the area.

The US-led international coalition said that they have carried out strikes on buildings surrounding the prison where ISIS fighters, also known by the Arabic acronym Daesh, were conducting attacks on the SDF and internal security forces (Asayish). “In their desperate attempt to display relevance, Daesh delivered a death sentence for many of their own who participated in this attack,” Major General John W. Brennan, Commander of Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) said on Sunday.

“Many Daesh detainees seized arms from prison guards whom they murdered and subsequently engaged SDF quick reaction forces,” he said in a statement on Sunday, adding that by taking up arms, the prisoners have become an “active threat” and legitimate target for the SDF and coalition.

Concerningly, alongside the ISIS adult detainees are several hundred children affiliated with the group, also detained in the facility. Last year, a UN report found that the conditions facing children held in northeast Syria amounted to torture, and breached inhuman treatment under international law. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there are around 850 children trapped inside the prison, some as young as 12.

“Children in the Ghwayran prison are children and have the right to access restorative justice procedures. We call for the release of children from prison. Detention of children should only be a measure of last resort and for the shortest time possible,” UNICEF’s Syria Representative Bo Viktor Nylund said in a statement on Sunday.

Letta Tayler of Human Rights Watch (HRW) shared in a series of tweets on Sunday that the organization had received an audio message from a terrified child inside the al-Sina’a prison, who said the building - and those in it - were “getting hit from every side”. 

“There’s a lot of people dead, a lot of people injured… please help,” the child pleaded. 

The associate director and counter terrorism lead at HRW’s Crisis and Conflict Division continued her appeal, calling it “Imperative that US-led coalition and SDF approach this as a potential hostage situation and do all they can to save these boys' lives.” 

Desperate requests from these children come as a new video, dated Sunday, depicts what appear to be adult militants inside the prison preparing to fight to the end. A man stands in the middle of a packed room as he uses religious language, spoken in Arabic, to encourage those around him to pledge to fight to the end. When he calls on the men, they hold out their hands and chant in unison, “We pledge to die.” In the next scene, men are seen breaking down a wall, as they exit the room through the gap. Most are wearing orange bandanas.

ISIS has released a number of videos from inside the prison, including one that showed around two dozen men - mostly Arabs - detained inside the facility. Kurdish authorities have said that those shown were cooks working in the prison kitchen. There appears to have been a backlash against the jihadists amongst the Sunni Arab tribes from the Hasaka and Deir ez-Zor governorates, where many of the men detained come from.

ISIS operatives and supporters said on Monday that the battle inside the prison is intensifying. One member posted a photo on social media saying that the lions of Baghouz will free their brethren in prison.

Baghouz is a reference to the final battle between the Kurdish-led SDF and ISIS in early 2019, where the jihadists were defeated. Most were either killed or captured; some of those detained were taken to al-Sina’a prison where the fighting continues. 

UNICEF has called on the international community to take urgent action to repatriate the children inside the facilities, and to repatriate them with their mothers to their countries of origin. “The clock is ticking for the children in the northeast of Syria,” the statement concluded. “Every day counts and more collective action is needed now.”