Statement By The SDF General Command Regarding Daesh’s Attack On The Al-Sina’a Prison

The continuous threats of Turkey against our regions is becoming obvious to public. As we know, the Turkish drones killed six young people in Kobane earlier this month. Subsequently, the Turkish state has increased the attacks and targeting civilians in Ain Issa, Zarkan, and Tal Tamir.
Our forces have resisted fiercely, defending our region’s people against the occupation attacks. Despite that, Daesh mercenaries have launched a massive attack on the world’s most dangerous prison of al-Sina’a that holds Daesh terrorist detainees who pose a threat not only to the region but also to the world at large.
According to the confessions of the arrested terrorists, more than 200 suicide terrorists involved in the attack, some of whom had come from the areas of Sri Kaneh/Ras al-Ain, Gri Spi/Tel Abyad, and from Iraq, and had taken the Geweran neighborhood as a hideout and a starting point for their attack. After six-month-long preparations, they attacked the prison, on January 20, roughly at 7.30 p.m., with car bombs. The terrorist detainees attacked the prison staff (medical and kitchen staff and guards) in conjunction with the attack from outside in an attempt to escape, yet they failed.
There is no clear information on the fate of these staff so far. Although a few managed to get to the building of the Faculty of Economics adjacent to the prison, our forces controlled the whole perimeter of the prison. The fiercest clashes were with the sleeper cells attacking from outside the prison, in the eastern neighborhoods of Geweran and al-Zuhour, in addition to the Panorama Square, that resulted in killing most of the terrorist attackers, controlling some hidden tunnels used by the terrorist attackers, and confiscating a number of heavy weapons, including DShK weapons.