ISIS ideology threatens to radicalize new generation – CENTCOM
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – US Central Command (CENTCOM) stressed on Friday that Islamic State (ISIS) detainees in detention centers in northeast Syria threaten to “radicalize a new generation of fighters.”
This came in a press release on the first anniversary of ISIS jailbreak on al-Sina’a prison in Guweiran neighborhood in Hasakah, northeast Syria.
CENTCOM reaffirmed the commitment to the enduring defeat of ISIS “alongside our partners.”
“Today, the one-year anniversary of the ISIS attack….we are reminded of the lingering danger of approximately 10,000 ISIS fighters,” detained in prisons in northeast Syria Colonel Joe Buccino, CENTCOM spokesperson said.
On January 20, 2022, the group’s sleeper cells carried out a series of attacks on al-Sina’a prison, where thousands of ISIS members were held, to set free their fellow inmates.
The prison attack sparked a 10-day battle between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and ISIS militants and caused a mass exodus of residents of the neighborhoods of Guweiran, al-Zuhour, al-Nashwa, and Villat al-Hamr to the central and northern neighborhoods of Hasakah. On January 30, the SDF announced taking full control of the prison.
The CENTCOM spokesperson noted that the ISIS detainees, who are kept in more than 20 detention facilities guarded by the SDF, represent an “ISIS army in detention.”
Buccino underscored the need to keep these detention centers that are “safely and humanely guarded by our partners,” secured.
He said that many ISIS detainees are not originally from Syria, stressing the need to repatriate them to their countries of origin.
The SDF supported by US forces regained control over the prison after the fierce battle, during which more than 425 ISIS militants were killed, the statement read.
The CENTCOM spokesperson mourned the loss of 121 SDF fighters and detention facility staff who were “unfortunately” killed in the fighting.