Although U.S.-backed Syrian forces were able to retake control of a prison after Islamic State terrorists launched a sophisticated attack to free their brothers in arms, the jailbreak has raised concerns over what the dayslong assault means for the threat of ISIS going forward.
Focused on the Gweiran Prison in Hasakah, Syria, last Thursday, roughly 300 ISIS operatives detonated multiple car bombs before converging on the facility, Voice of America reported, citing the Syrian Democratic Forces. The facility housed roughly 4,000 ISIS fighters and another 700-850 boys and teenagers.
“The Peoples’ Hammer Operation has culminated with our entire control of the al-Sina’a prison in al-Hasakah and the surrendering of all Daesh terrorists,” SDF spokesman Farhad Shami tweeted on Wednesday.
AFGHAN EVACUEE CONVICTED OF SEXUAL CONTACT WITH TODDLER AT MILITARY BASE
Shami told Voice of America that roughly 250 ISIS attackers were killed and that thousands of the inmates were recaptured, according to initial estimates. The SDF lost about 30 soldiers in the operation to retake the prison.
It’s still unclear how many previously held prisoners remain on the loose. Shami told the outlet that it “is not correct” to say that “tens or hundreds of ISIS prisoners ran away,” adding, “There may be individual escapes … but no mass escape from the prison.”
Despite his evaluation, the Rojava Information Center, a pro-Kurdish research group, said that roughly 2,200 prisoners and 700 children were unaccounted for, and it cited SDF data.
The sophistication of the multipronged attack, and having the numbers necessary to pull it off, could present new challenges for the U.S. military, as it has shifted its focus away from the Middle East following the withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of last August.
“This prison attack in Syria could become a propaganda boon for ISIS and cause it to gain more recruits or to increase the operational tempo of their attacks in the region,” Ambassador Nathan Sales, who served as ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism, told the Washington Examiner. “It’s possible, but there’s just so many other factors that could play into it that it’s hard to make a reliable prediction.”
“The attack on the prison, that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” he added. “ISIS sees an opportunity here, and they’re going to continue to try to break out citizens from countries around the globe who are in prisons or camps.”
The United States utilized air support to assist the SDF in their efforts.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed last Friday that the U.S. “provided some airstrikes to support [SDF] as they deal with this particular prison break,” though he didn’t provide many details about targets or its success.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We are still providing a measure of support to the SDF to help to contain this threat,” he said in a Tuesday update, noting that the U.S. “helped them establish a perimeter around this facility.”
Jason Killmeyer, a national security expert, told the Washington Examiner that he’s “less worried” about the attack, which he called “relatively sophisticated,” and explained that he’s “more worried about what it says about ISIS’s resiliency in Syria.” The U.S. military needs to ascertain whether “this attack is indicative of a resurgence in ISIS capability versus a one-off or potentially, let’s say, new blood in the organization,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Washington Examiner earlier this month that ISIS-K or al Qaeda, both terrorist groups in Afghanistan, could gain the capacity to launch international attacks in a matter of months.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in September that the two groups could reconstitute within six to 36 months, which would occur as soon as the spring.
