The SDF declared Thursday’s ISIS prison raid foiled in short order, but this appears to have been overly optimistic. Five days of fighting have raged since then, with the SDF continuing to insist the matter is almost resolved.
One thing that is clear though is that ISIS in Syria is a lot stronger than anyone gives them credit for anymore. The ISIS Caliphate was defeated in 2019, with many detainees sent to prisons.
Tens of thousands of ISIS fighters were never caught though, and fled into the deserts around Deir Ezzor Province. They were spread apart enough so as to make chasing them impractical, and only rarely would any forces leave the desert to carry out attacks.
This made ISIS no more than a minor threat, capable of the occasional ambush, but not able to take and hold any populated area. That may need to be reconsidered after this prison raid.
In many ways, what went wrong probably was informed by the ISIS of the past couple of years. When the first push at the prison failed, ISIS forces scrambled and the SDF appeared to assume they’d won, and that the ISIS force would disappear into the countryside like they always do. Instead, the forces stayed in the city of Hasakeh and pressed the prison once more.
ISIS is a bit more resilient than they’d been, and that could be a big problem, as they still have a lot of fighters to draw upon in trying to recover a position within Syria.
What will it take for us to get it -/ there is no ISIS any more. There will always be groups paid by someone to accomplish a goal. Whoever this was -/ its aim was to get people out of that “prison”. What do we know about the prison? Who is really there? Is there a process defining their fate? They are not prisoners of war, US has no jurisdiction there, SDF does not relresent anyine — it is a joke to call them Kurdish. They have no support in population.
The prison is just an excuse for US to have a toe in the door in Hasskah. knowing ffull well that Syrian government will not attack them for as long as US supports them.
There is a real question whether any inmates remain. Given the fighting still going on — it is not clear that SDF has it under control. US bombed while there was something to bomb — but if they are spread in the countrside, who knows — this could be an Iraqi group taking revenge at SDF,
The fighting is still apparently going on. Population fled to government controlled ares.
Where US goes, chaos follows—call it “ISIS” if you wish, but if US had never created discord Syria would be fine; this is Israeli( and US) plan to have and keep entire ME a mess