Recently, Islamic State (IS) attacked a prison in north-eastern Syria where hundreds of IS members were imprisoned. This attack is considered to be the biggest attack and ambitious campaign by this group in a long time.
But the danger is everywhere. The IS leadership is repeatedly sending out the message that freeing jihadist prisoners in jail is their top priority. Using the slogan 'Hadam al-Avsar', IS is spreading this message everywhere. The meaning of this slogan is "Breaking Prison Walls".
With this slogan, IS was successful in breaking several prisons in July 2013 and it has built its image as a group that never leaves its supporters.
The recent attack on a heavily-secured prison without a base in Hasaka province could strengthen the group and at the same time make IS stand out again in the eyes of the jihadist community.
The release of jihadist prisoners is a thread that has been part of IS propaganda and messages as well as its operations in the eastern part of Syria.
In the year 2019, Baghouz, the last eastern Syrian area from the occupation of IS, also went away. Since then, IS leaders have always been telling their priority to save prisoners in their messages. The IS leader promises the prisoners, "We have not forgotten you and will never forget you."
Indeed, the issue of IS fighters and their family members (women and children) imprisoned in Syria and Iraq has been a matter of shame for the group.
When IS first lost Baghouz, many of its fighters as well as families were surrounded and taken to Kurdish-run detention camps and prisons in Hasaka province such as Al-Hol, Al-Roz, and Ghuwayran.
Jihadi rivals have shamed IS heavily on this issue. Leaving its fighters alone and imprisoning women, in particular, was a blot on IS's "honor".
The first message issued in April 2019 by the then IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after Baghouz's departure did not mention the fighters held hostage in Syria.
Rival jihadists also made it a point of criticism of IS. Supporters of al-Qaeda then launched a "Free the Prisoners" campaign and made efforts to rescue the families of IS fighters. It was an act that IS supporters saw as an insult to the group.
Leadership misunderstood
IS took a lesson from all this. In the same year (September 2019), its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered another message, a large part of which was dedicated to the prisoners, and Baghdadi asked his fighters to consider the release of his prisoners from prison as his top priority.
Baghdadi's words to the prisoners "we have not forgotten you" were later used by IS in its messages and online campaigns. In that message, Baghdadi also used the famous "Hadam al-Aswar" slogan, referring to the group's past campaigns.
In these operations, hundreds of prisoners were released by raiding the prisons of Iraq.
Since then, the prisoner fighters have become a vital part of all messages issued by the IS leadership.
Al-Baghdadi's unseen and unheard successor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashmi al-Qurashi, who took over the leadership of IS in October 2019 after Baghdadi's death, also continued to promote the prisoners prominently in his messages. These messages of Al Hashmi were publicized and broadcast on behalf of the spokesman.
Al-Quraishi's messages issued in January 2020, May 2020, October 2020, and June 2021 called on all fighters in the group to redouble efforts to free IS prisoners and pay special attention to those held in Syria. Huh.
In an unusual move, al-Qureshi, in his June 2021 message, promised financial rewards to supporters who would put to death investigators, judges, lawyers, jailers, etc., involved in punishing IS members and their families.
But IS has been caring about prisoners even before it became its dreaded extremist group.
IS's predecessor, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, which then functioned as an offshoot of al-Qaeda, often raised voices for prisoners.
This issue used to be part of propaganda prepared not only for supporters, but he also appealed to Iraq's Sunnis for the release of prisoners. IS often threatened attacks in support of male and female fighters lodged in prison on charges of extremist activities.
online campaign
In August 2020, IS told its members that freeing the prisoners was their top priority.
Indeed, IS was trying to capitalize on the success of its attack on a prison in eastern Afghanistan earlier that month.
Many prisoners had escaped from jail because of this attack. Soon after, supporters of the group began campaigning to spread these messages in online hashtag campaigns.
In January 2021, IS raised its slogan "We have not forgotten you" through its weekly newspaper al-Naba.
After this, IS fighters ran online propaganda for two weeks. Pro-IS media organizations flooded with posters, videos, and messages in support of the group, showing solidarity with the prisoners on the one hand and inciting IS supporters to release these prisoners.
IS supporters launched this campaign again in April of the same year, but this time their focus was on the prisoners. They were shamed in these operations as a tactic to incite men to attack.
The way these informal campaigns lasted for a long time indicated that they were probably carried out by IS. Arabic-language hashtags and slogans were often used in these campaigns.
Prison attacks in the past
IS carried out several successful attacks on prisons in the areas it held. The most discussed of these was the attack that IS carried out in 2013 on an Iraqi prison. Hundreds of prisoners reportedly fled the two major prisons after the attack, many of whom rejoined IS.
In July 2013, there were attacks on the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad and the al-Taji prison to its north in which more than 500 prisoners were reportedly freed. The attacks were part of Baghdadi's "demolish prison walls" campaign, which was launched exactly a year earlier, in July 2012.
The group announced the occupation of Iraq a year later in 2014. At that time some high-profile prisoners released from prison were given important responsibilities under the IS leadership.
The successful attacks on the prison reinforced IS's slogan "breaking down prison walls". In August 2020, IS extremists attacked the Central Jail in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, and reportedly freed hundreds of prisoners.
Two months later, in October 2020, IS fighters raided the Kangbayi Central Prison in the northeastern region of Congo. According to local officials, at least 900 inmates managed to escape from the prison because of the attack.
Ghuvairan Jail Attack
Since the loss of Baghouz in 2019, IS has been carrying out small attacks to free prisoners in Syria, which were only symbolic. However, he started the attack on Ghuvairan Jail on January 20 and this attack was going on till the time of writing this news.
It is also a major attack in recent years because IS has attacked a heavily guarded prison in the Kurdish-controlled province by entering enemy territory. IS has no base here and has limited support.
Last year, of the 288 attacks that are carried out in Syria, only 22 were in Hasaka province. The region is controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces of Kurds.
IS has so far released five short videos showing the different phases of the attack on the prison. These include much footage of extremists entering the prison, recording from inside the building, making an escape route by demolishing the prison wall.
In August 2020, IS revealed that it had carried out some attacks only so that they could later be used for a deal to free IS prisoners.
In the same statement, IS also said that some of its cases involved coordination with prisoners who riot inside the prison with outside help from IS.
Recent attacks by IS suggest that external action was coordinated with activities inside the prison. When the attack began on January 20, local media sources quoted Kurdish officials as saying "revolts" and "riots" among prisoners coincided with the timing of the IS attack.
IS claimed on January 22 that it had so far freed 800 prisoners from the attack and killed more than 200 security forces personnel, including senior staff. IS has asked locals to give shelter to the released prisoners, which is likely to mean that many are on the run.
If IS does not stop this attack and many fleeing extremists are not caught again, this attack will show significant strength to the group's position.
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