A key prison changes hands in northern Syria
Syrian government forces took control of al-Aqtan prison in Raqqa on Friday. The site houses members of the Islamic State extremist group. The change came after hundreds of Kurdish fighters left the area as part of an agreement.
“The government prison authority is now in charge… and the files of the detainees are being reviewed,” the Ministry of the Interior explained in a statement.
It is not the first, and it comes with history
This is the second prison to come into the hands of Damascus this week. On Monday, troops entered Shaddadeh prison near Iraq. There, the chaos allowed 120 IS members to escape, although the majority were recaptured according to state media.
The advance comes just after the United States announced that it began transferring some of the 9,000 radical militiamen detained in centers controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
These forces were key in the fight against IS during the last decade. In 2019 they captured the group’s last territorial stronghold. Thousands of extremists were detained from those battles, along with tens of thousands of women and children linked to them.
How was this agreement reached?
The capture of al-Aqtan came after government troops surrounded the site this week. It is part of a broader offensive against the SDF that has been going on for two weeks.
Raqqa Governor Abdul-Rahman Salama said there are up to 2,000 detainees in jail, although it is unclear how many are linked to the extremist group.
After days of negotiations, a corridor was opened for some 800 SDF fighters to head towards Kobani, an area they still control. The SDF confirmed the transfer “to safe places” with the support of the coalition led by Washington.
A fragile ceasefire and forced integration
The government offensive in the northeast, which began in January, caused the displacement of thousands of people, mostly Kurds, towards Hassakeh. After several failed attempts, a temporary ceasefire was declared this week.
The final pact, reached between interim authorities and Kurdish commander Mazloum Abdi, establishes something significant: Kurdish forces should be integrated into the Syrian ministries of Defense and Interior. A movement that seeks to disarm a long-disputed autonomy.
