US forces have set up a huge prison in Raqqa in northeastern Syria to hold foreign members of the Islamic State (ISIS), who have been arrested during military and security operations in the area.
Sources told Anadolu agency that the prison was set up in a former school building in the town of Ayn Issa north of Raqqa, and that it has been expanded and transformed into a huge prison including hundreds of inmates.
The sources said that all the workers in the prison, from the guards to the overseers to the investigators and managers were Americans, working in total secrecy, and receiving prisoners almost daily.
They also noted that all the prisoners were foreign members of ISIS, most of them commanders in the group.
The sources said that the prison was surrounded by cameras and the area was about 30,000 square meters.
Prisoners’ quarters were in the basement, while the ground floor of the prison was occupied by small rooms used for solitary confinement, according to the same sources.
There was no information about the treatment of the prisoners.
Four years ago, coalition forces led by the US, began military operations against ISIS in eastern Syria. Fighters were hit with coalition airstrikes, which were supported on the ground by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) militia, which Turkey classifies as a terrorist group.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, of which the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) are the backbone, are supported by the United States. They took control of Raqqa last October after fighting against ISIS.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
