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Syrian government takes over prison with ISIL-linked detainees in Raqqa
Syrian government forces assume control of al-Aqtan prison, as SDF fighters withdraw from the northeastern city of Raqqa under ceasefire deal.
The Syrian government says it has taken over control of al-Aqtan prison, a facility in the northeastern city of Raqqa housing a number of ISIL (ISIS) detainees, following the withdrawal of Kurdish-led SDF fighters under a ceasefire agreement.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement on Telegram on Friday that officials from the Prisons and Correctional Facilities Administration had assumed control of the prison in the former SDF stronghold of Raqqa, and had begun an examination of prisoners’ conditions and their records, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
The takeover of the prison and cessation of hostilities in Raqqa occurred in line with a four-day ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government and the SDF, which came into effect on Tuesday night. The ceasefire followed last week’s lightning advance by Syrian forces in which they retook large swaths of territory long held by the SDF.
Convoys of buses and cars carrying more than 1,000 SDF personnel were seen moving out of Raqqa, as Syrian forces granted them safe passage to travel westwards to Kobane, a Kurdish-majority city on the border with Turkiye.
The Syrian army’s operations authority said units had also begun transferring SDF elements from the al-Aqtan prison and its surroundings in Raqqa governorate to the city of Ain al-Arab, east of Aleppo, in line with the ceasefire agreement, SANA reported.
Security vacuum filled
Reporting from Raqqa, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi said Syrian forces had filled the power vacuum left by the retreating SDF forces “very quickly”, and teams had begun demining and dismantling munitions left inside the prison, removing SDF weaponry on large trucks.
“The Syrian army is now squarely in control of the prison,” he said, describing the “relative smoothness” of the handover as a “positive development”.
He described the developments in Raqqa as a “rare occasion where the SDF and the Syrian military … have acknowledged that they have cooperated and they have done so successfully”.
“It’s the first time that I can remember covering this story for the last couple of weeks that they’ve both acknowledged that they’ve worked together to secure safe passage for SDF fighters,” he said.
[Source: Al Jazeera English]
