US urges coalition allies to improve 'secure' detention of IS fighters after prison attack

Washington urges its coalition partners in Syria to enhance secure detention of Islamic State fighters and repatriate their nationals and other detainees remaining in the northeast of the Arab republic, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday.

In mid-January, about 200 terrorists affiliated with the IS escaped in an attack on a prison controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Syrian city of Al-Hasakah. The IS attacked the facility in order to free imprisoned fighters. On Wednesday, the SDF said that the prison was back under control, and about 1,000 remaining terrorists have surrendered. According to the latest data, 175 terrorists were eliminated and 27 SDF soldiers were killed.

"We call on our partners in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, whose efforts successfully stripped ISIS of its captured territory, to improve the secure and humane detention of ISIS fighters, support rehabilitation initiatives, and urgently repatriate their nationals and other detainees remaining in northeast Syria. The U.S. government will continue its stabilization and other programs in the region to support these efforts," Price said.

The US remains committed to efforts contributing to the defeat of the IS terrorists, he added.

"The United States commends the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for their heroic and effective response to the sustained ISIS attack on the Hasakah detention center and the surrounding area," the statement said.

On Thursday, the Syrian Military Prosecutor's office said that the events in Al-Hasakah are the result of the US project of maintaining control over northeastern Syria. According to the Syrian authorities, the international coalition led by the United States allowed IS terrorists to carry out the attack on the prison in order to show that the terrorist threat still exists in the region and thereby justify Washington's illegal presence in the country.

The armed conflict in Syria has been going on since 2011 with Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces fighting different insurgent groups. In late 2017, the IS was declared defeated in Syria and Iraq, but counterterrorism operations are still underway.

Washington backs the Kurdish armed formations located in the country despite protests from the Syrian government. The US military currently controls parts of the provinces of Al-Hasakah, Raqqa, Aleppo and Deir Ez-Zor, where the largest Syrian oil and gas fields are located.

Damascus does not recognize the so-called autonomous administration of northern and eastern Syria and calls the presence of the US military on its territory an occupation and state piracy with the aim of outright theft of oil. (ANI/Sputnik)

( With inputs from ANI )

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