DAMASCUS (Parliament Politics Magazine): Jihadist extremists are believed to have held hundreds of children hostage in the beleaguer prison in north-eastern Syria.
Around 850 children are being held in Hasaka’s Ghwayran jail, which was overrun by Islamic State (IS) forces on Thursday, sparking days of fighting.
According to security troops, approximately 300 militants in the prison surrendered on Monday.
Since the launch of raid by IS to release imprisoned fighters, more over 150 individuals have been reported murdered.
Prisons which are run by the Kurdish authorities have held thousands of IS suspects.
After the IS organisation overran vast sections of Syria many years ago, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance led by the Kurdish , backed by US-led coalition forces, fought the group and claimed territorial defeat in March 2019.
IS cells, on the other hand, continue to function and have carried out a series of devastating assaults against security troops and civilians.
The surprise attack by more than 100 IS members on the jail provoked violent fighting both outside and inside the facility, including air strikes by a US-led coalition.
Since Thursday, 102 IS fighters, seven civilians, and 45 Kurdish security personnel and prison guards have been killed in confrontations at the prison, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group.
Unicef, the UN’s children’s agency, expressed alarm on about 850 children being held amidst the fighting in the prison.Â
The children’s safety, it added, was in “severe jeopardy.” Some of the children were as young as 12 years old.
As the battle continues, the possibility of children being harmed or recruited forcibly increases, it warned, calling for their release.
IS militants were locked up in a dorm that housed hundreds of minors, jailed for suspected IS ties, according to the SDF.
It stated the children being used as “human shields” and cautioned that if the children are wounded, the terrorists will be held accountable. The SDF said that the area surrounding the jail had been sealed by its forces and that IS militants within the prison’s gates could no longer escape.
According to the AFP news agency, relatives of youngsters held in the facility claim they were detained without appropriate proof and for resisting forced conscription into the SDF.
IS had a strategy of enlisting the help of youngsters, particularly those who had been kidnapped, and teaching them to carry out suicide bombings or assassinations. The toddlers, called Cubs of the Caliphate by IS, are being incarcerated in Kurdish-run jails in northern Syria alongside thousands of IS fighters from more than 50 nations.
According to the SOHR, the overcrowded Ghwayran camp hosted 3,500 alleged IS militants, including some of the group’s commanders.
Hundreds of jihadists who escaped after the IS attack have been apprehended, but some remain on the loose, according to the report.
Image via BBC
