Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces in Baghuz in eastern Syria (Delil Souleiman, AFP, Getty)
26 January 2022 (Updated) — Thank you to everyone in the Maranatha family who has been in prayer regarding this event. Today, the SDF announced that their forces have regained full control of the al-Sina prison in al-Hasakeh after completing a series of raids and airstrikes in cooperation with US and British partners, in what became known as Operation People’s Hammer. Hundreds of Islamic State fighters have been surrendering to the SDF in al-Hasakeh over the past three days, and all surviving hostages have been freed from the prison. The SDF claims at least 1,000 ISIS militants participated from both inside and outside the prison, exhibiting a level of preparation and coordination which ISIS has not shown in Syria for more than two years. Labeling the resurgence of ISIS in Syria and Iraq as an “existential threat,” the US-led Coalition released a press statement calling for an investigation into the incident and exhorting the international community towards an “enduring, long-term solution” to the persistence of the Islamic State within the boundaries of its old Caliphate.
22 January 2022 — In what has become the largest and most complex ISIS operation since the fall of its caliphate in 2019, an estimated 80 militants sieged the al-Sina prison in the city of al-Hasakeh in Northeast Syria (aka Rojava) on Thursday, where an estimated 3,500 ISIS jihadists have been interned for several years. The prison is managed by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a key ally of the US-led Coalition in Syria. The attack was successful in freeing an unknown number of prisoners and kicking off three days of ongoing street battles in the area.
A vehicle-born improvised explosive device (VBIED) was used to punch through the prison’s outer ring of defense, after which dozens of gunmen streamed into the prison facility, shouting “Allahu Akbar” while executing prison guards and freeing prisoners. At least 22 SDF personnel were killed-in-action and possibly several hundred prisoners escaped before the SDF finally repelled the attackers. Over 100 more prisoners managed to “take over” the northern wing of the prison with hostages, where they are still in control of 25% of the prison at the time of this publication. At least 45 ISIS militants have been killed so far in the fighting.
While the SDF managed to recapture at least 100 prisoners by Friday, potentially hundreds of prisoners are still at-large, mostly holed up in the nearby al-Zohour neighborhood of Hasakeh, prompting a general mobilization of SDF forces across Rojava. US warplanes and Apache helicopters have conducted a series of airstrikes and close air support for the SDF in the ongoing counter-offensive. Meanwhile, the Turkish air force took advantage of the ISIS attack on the SDF, conducting an airstrike against at least 1 SDF vehicle in Rojava. Turkey has fought a bitter war with the SDF in Rojava since 2018, when its forces and allied Syrian Islamists captured the city of Afrin on the Turkish-Syrian border, followed by “Operation Peace Spring” in October, 2019, during which time it forced the SDF back from the Tel Abyad border crossing and surrounding environs, to create a “buffer zone” between the Turkey and the SDF, which it regularly characterizes as a terrorist organization in state-sponsored media.
The Islamic State previously organized a similar prison break operation against the same prison facility last December, before intelligence led the SDF to arrest the top ISIS emir responsible for planning the attack. However, it appears that the arrest only delayed the operation. The freeing of its detained jihadists has been a top priority for ISIS in Syria, especially after witnessing the resurgence of ISIS-K in Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover of that nation last August. Thousands of militants were freed from a former US-controlled prison near Kabul, swelling the ranks of ISIS-K and boosting its morale, and leading to a series of attacks against Taliban and US Coalition forces in the days and weeks which followed. Many analysts now believe that ISIS-K holds de facto control of several Afghan districts and population centers, which its parent organization now seeks to emulate in the territory of its former Iraqi-Syrian Caliphate.
While ISIS militants attacked the al-Sina prison in Syria, a second contingent of ISIS cells were activated in Iraq early Friday morning and attempted to breach an army barracks in Diyala Province. The attack was repelled, at the cost of the lives of 10 Iraqi servicemen and an officer at the base.
Political leaders in the autonomous region of Northeast Syria lashed out publicly against the international community, which has mostly refused to assist in either transferring or repatriating thousands of ISIS militants after the fall of the Islamic State in 2019. Abdulkarim Omar, co-chair of the Kurdish administration’s foreign office, tweeted that his government has “consistently appealed to the international community for ISIS militants in jails and camps. We warned that the current situation could not be maintained. The world and international community must carry out their responsibilities in dealing with the ISIS problem.”
We ask the Maranatha global family to make prayerful intercession on behalf of the people of Rojava, who are facing their greatest danger from the resurgent Islamic State in almost three years. We pray that bloodshed and destruction of property would be minimized, and that the SDF and US-led Coalition would have quick success in quelling the rebellion and recapturing the militants who terrorized the people of Rojava for years. We pray that the international community would be prompted by this incident to come together and resolve the ISIS detainee issue, before further attempts are made, which could lead to a reiteration of the Caliphate. Most importantly, we pray that the Lord of Hosts would work in and through the chaos and upheaval in Rojava, still beset by enemies around it and inside it, as well as by poverty, water and food shortages, COVID-19 and international neglect, to draw the diverse people groups of that region to Himself. We pray for the Father of the Harvest to send laborers into the field of Rojava, planting seeds of Good News, and in due time, reaping a harvest of Kurdish and Arab souls.
Maranatha
