Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, accompanied by the ministers of defense and interior, arrived at the border between Iraq and Syria in Nineveh province on Wednesday according to a tweet from the premier’s office, having landed in Mosul earlier that morning.
Kadhimi’s visit to the border comes in light of recent escalations in northeast Syria’s (Rojava) Hasaka province, where more than two hundred ISIS fighters broke into al-Sina’a prison in the Ghweran province on Thursday night, leading to riots among the hundreds of fighters inside the detention facility.
Over the following week, ISIS militants within the prison and its surrounding areas have battled with the internationally-backed SDF, supported by US and British forces, in a conflict that has seen tens of thousands of residents flee.
The prison attack has raised concern about border security along the Iraqi and Kurdistan Region border.
Iraq’s council of ministers decided on Tuesday for the finance ministry to provide 15 billion dinars (over $10 million) to the ministry of interior and border guard forces to enhance security by setting up concrete slabs across a 50km distance along the border.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Sunday expressed concern over the situation in a tweet, pledging to strengthen the border between Rojava and the Kurdistan Region
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.I’m deeply concerned by the ISIS terrorist attacks in NE Syria and Iraq. I have directed Ministers of Peshmerga and Interior, and security services, to strengthen defensive lines and measures necessary to protect the people of the Kurdistan Region.
— Masrour Barzani (@masrour_barzani) January 23, 2022
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,” - 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.
The SDF early Wednesday morning said that they had liberated 23 prison employees on Tuesday, and the SDF media head Farhad Shami shared an image on Wednesday showing medical staff treating a wounded ISIS fighter in the prison.
We are still committed to our moral principles even with our worst enemies. Our forces enjoy popular and global support because our mission is to rid humanity of terrorism.
— Farhad Shami (@farhad_shami) January 26, 2022
Our medical staff are treating the wounded Daesh in al-Hasaka prison pic.twitter.com/Zn3AcUZ96X
ISIS controlled swathes of Syrian territories in 2014. The offensive on the Ghweran prison in Rojava is one of the most significant operations since the terror group’s so-called caliphate was defeated in Syria in 2019.
In its propaganda magazine on Thursday, ISIS claimed to have conducted 7 attacks in Iraq and Syria from January 13 to January 19, killing and injuring 18 people.
The group also claimed that they had conducted a total of 1,495 attacks in the two countries throughout 2021, killing and injuring 2,829 people.
Global security experts warned on Tuesday that the conflict in Hasaka must “serve as a wakeup call for countries to repatriate their citizens,” many of whom have been detained in the prison for almost three years having been captured upon the fall of the caliphate.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava) have repeatedly requested assistance in managing the detainees. On Tuesday they issued a statement, lamenting that “the consequences of ISIS are still without the interest and care of the international community.”
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