YPG’s spokesperson to SOHR: Turkish intelligence supported the attack on Ghuwayran prison while the residents in surrounding areas backed our forces and provided information
The attack by ISIS on Ghuwayran prison in Al-Hasakah city has sounded the alarm over the possibility of regrouping the organisation’s fighters and planting them again in the region.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has warned several times about the resurgence of ISIS that has not been ultimately defeated as announcedby several sides. What happened was only eliminating the presence of ISIS in the inhabited areas while the organisation still enjoys significant force on ground via conducting daily individual attacks in the Syrian desert areas and other raids on areas under the control of the “Autonomous Administration” by its cells.
SOHR considers that the battle and security developments of Ghuwayran prison made it a necessity for different countries to work seriously on evacuating their terrorist nationals from the prison and “Al-Hawl camp” that houses their families and constitutes a ticking bomb that targets the region and the world.
Nuri Mahmoud, spokesperson of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in north-east Syria told SOHR in an exclusive interview that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) obtained intelligence about a possible ISIS attack on Ghuwayran prison, that had been raided six days ago. Based on information acquired months earlier, an attack by ISIS was a possibility and some members of ISIS cells were arrested and the SDF announced to the public such details and referred to some backers such as “MIT”, Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization which trained ISIS members and aided them with logistics.
Mahmoud adds the operation room for administering the prison break was centred in “Urfa” and “Gaziantep” and information revealed that “MIT” spent nearly 15 million US dollars on the operation and planned to target Al-Hasakah city during the prison battle.
The YPG’s spokesperson reiterates that the headquarters of the SDF is based in Al-Hasakah city and the Turkish side wanted to use the most dangerous terrorists in Ghuwayran prison to control the surrounding neighbourhood of Ghuwayran and AL-Zohour, but “the residents of those areas have aborted such plans and aided ours forces.”
He explains that the first days of the prison operation have witnessed fierce battles that started from outside the borders of the prison to its inside sections which prevented the infiltration of the terrorists and aborted their plans to capture Ghuwayran and AL-Zohour neighbourhood and control of Al-Hasakah city.
“Our forces were alert and succeeded in besieging the prisoners inside the prison building since the third day of the battle,” he said noting that some of the prisoners who escaped from the prison into its vicinity were arrested with the support of the people who have been helping us and providing us with information.”
Mahmoud points out that surroundings of the prison were completely combed and ISIS members were besieged inside the prison perimeters despite some prisoners were using the weapons in their possession.
Speaking about some sides that wanted to politicise the most dangerous terrorist attack recently and make some gains of the prison events, Mahmoud refers to the Turkish side represented in the “Justice and development Party” (AKP) and its president Tayyip Erdogan.
“The AKP has attempted before to impact the social coherence in the region via using the Turkish army and institutions and using the Turkish people’s money to fund terrorists and mercenaries in order to achieve the ultimate goal of establishing an“Erdoganian Empire” as an extension to the Ottoman Empire, but they failed,” said Mahmoud.
He adds that in cooperation with the International Coalition, the SDF manged to completely control the situation and ISIS prisoners, while combing operations of the prison’s surroundings areas have been continuing to pursue and arrest the fleeing terrorists.
Concerning the accusations against the SDF and the International Coalition of negligence and collusion, the YPG’s spokesperson said, “such allegations were promoted by the governor of Al-Hasakah and some regime loyalists in Damascus in order to control the region using ISIS as a pretext.”
However, the YPG and the SDF in collaboration with the International Coalition forces manged to restore security andorder, Mahmoud added, noting that “we believe that some sides who promoted such allegations may have contributed to the prison attack to politicise such events for the interests of regional agendas and purposes.”
He highlights the prison operation was huge and gained large support in some areas that are under control of the Turkish army, noting such areas have been feeding ISIS and other terrorist cells that collaborate with the Turkish intelligence.
The attempted prison break that aimed at controlling Al-Hasakah city and reviving ISIS cells in other cities has failed and the plan of using the prisoners in Ghuwayran prison, who are considered the most dangerous terrorists, and orchestrated the operations of ISIS and others terrorist organisations in Syria, Iraq and the world also was aborted, according to the YPG’s spokesperson.