IS Syria prison attack puts child detainees in harm’s way

U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces advancing slowly inside facility

In a recording that emerged from a Syrian prison wing taken over by Islamic State group militants, a trapped teenager pleads for help, describing the mayhem of a days-long battle over the facility that has reportedly left multiple child inmates killed and wounded.

U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces were advancing slowly inside the detention facility, where they said Tuesday they freed nine of their servicemen held hostage by the militants. At least 15 others are still held by IS, one Kurdish official said.

IS militants stormed the prison late Thursday, aiming to break out comrades inside. Around 200 militants remain holed up in the northern wing at one end of the prison complex, holding hostages from among the prison staff.

The Gweiran Prison, also known as al-Sinaa, is the largest detention facility in northeast Syria for suspected IS members, with more than 3,000 inmates, including hundreds of minors.

The attack is the biggest by IS militants since the fall of the group’s “caliphate” in 2019. Dozens from both sides have been killed in the clashes, the U.S.-led coalition has carried out nearly a dozen airstrikes, and thousands of civilians living nearby have been displaced.

The militants are also using minors as human shields, Kurdish officials say, slowing the effort by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to retake the facility, located in the northeastern city of Hassakeh. Children are reportedly among the dead and wounded from the fighting, rights groups say, though numbers are not known.

Letta Tayler, associate crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch, said she had unconfirmed reports that SDF paramedics were treating wounded children, along with others, in newly recaptured parts of the prison complex.

She said she learned from a wellplaced source that militants had moved the boys to various parts of the prison and they were no longer segregated in an area for minors, “which complicates rescue and recapture efforts.”

A 17-year-old Australian inside the prison appealed for help and described his surroundings, saying he was in a kitchen when fighting erupted around him. He said he was injured in the head and was bleeding.