The coalition announced Sunday it sent aerial surveillance to help quell a prison riot at a Hasakah detention facility in Syria as ISIS fighters attempted a jail break.
U.S. Army Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, tweeted Sunday that the coalition was supporting Syrian Democratic Forces with surveillance to help quell the prison riot.
Caggins said no coalition members staff the detention facility that holds “low-level ISIS” prisoners.
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According to Syrian Democratic Forces, no ISIS fighters managed to escape the detention facility and SDF forces managed to secure the facility.
On Sunday, the SDF said ISIS fighters removed “internal doors” of the cells, created holes in dormitory walls and controlled the ground floor of the prison.
“These incidents once again confirm the ability of the SDF to secure ISIS terrorists, but also shows the need for more support from the international community and the international coalition against ISIS, in order to provide maximum protection to detention centers and camps that contain ISIS terrorists and their family members,” the SDF said in a news release.
The SDF run more than a dozen makeshift detention facilities across northern Syria housing more than 10,000 ISIS prisoners.
A Turkish military incursion targeting the Kurdish-led fighters in Oct. 2019, worried national security experts that ISIS prisoners seeking to leverage fallout from offensive operation could attempt to make a break from the prison facilities.
SDF forces have struggled to maintain the facilities and rely on revenue from captured Syrian oil wells in the region to fund some of the prison operations.
As the U.S. contemplated withdrawing forces from Syria following Turkish operations, the U.S. opted to maintain a handful of troops to protect oil wells in Syria and SDF revenue sources to maintain the prison compounds.
OIR says no coalition members staff any of the makeshift detention facilities.
Shawn Snow is the senior reporter for Marine Corps Times and a Marine Corps veteran.
