By Salam Ali
Dozens of homes surrounding the al-Sinaa prison in Hasakah city were demolished in the wake of a major Islamic State attack in January 2022. Nearly two years later, homeowners have not been compensated despite AANES promises.
As winter approaches, Anwar al-Abdullah, 35, is busy pouring a concrete roof for two rooms he built on the ruins of his destroyed house near al-Sinaa prison in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah city. He went into debt to pay for the work, borrowing 15 million Syrian pounds ($1,090).
Nearly two years have passed since the Islamic State (IS) attacked al-Sinaa prison, one kilometer from al-Abdullah’s home, in January 2022, aiming to break hundreds of IS prisoners out of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-run facility. During battles that ensued, scores of homes in the area around the prison were damaged or destroyed–including al-Abdullah’s four-room house.
When the fighting ended, al-Abdullah and other impacted Hasakah residents lived in the hope of receiving compensation, “even if partial,” from the SDF-backed Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), which administers the area. In April 2022, AANES officials promised to work towards compensating them, but so far “nobody has compensated us,” he told Syria Direct.
As months became years, al-Abdullah’s hope dried up. Finally, he decided this year to erect two simple rooms amid the debris of what he lost in Hasakah’s Ghweiran neighborhood.
During the 2022 IS attack, fighters infiltrated “the Ghweiran, al-Nashwa and al-Zuhour neighborhoods, as well as the Faculty of Economics building adjacent to the prison” in the south of Hasakah city, according to the SDF. Several days of fierce clashes erupted, before the SDF announced it foiled the attack on January 30. Some 374 IS fighters were reportedly killed in the battles, in addition to 121 SDF fighters and prison workers. Four civilians were also killed.
Al-Abdullah was one of thousands of people who fled the area of the fighting during the IS attack. When they returned, they were shocked at the scale of the destruction: Some of their homes were razed to the ground, while others were partially destroyed.
At first, many organizations and bodies came to inspect damage in the area, but “people were coming to use us to ask for money and leave,” al-Abdullah said sarcastically, implying the visits were only aimed at taking pictures and documenting the damage.
Al-Abdullah refrained from mentioning who was responsible for destroying his home. However, Human Rights Watch has accused the SDF of destroying or damaging at least 140 private buildings housing 147 families in January and February 2022 while repelling the IS attack and pursuing fighters. A number of local residents told Syria Direct the same.
The AANES holds IS responsible for the damage, saying last year that the attack led to the destruction of 120 houses in the Ghweiran and al-Zuhour neighborhoods. Of these, 62 were completely destroyed and 58 partially destroyed, according to the de facto governing body.
However, a statement by Nowruz Ahmad, a member of the SDF’s general command, on January 31, 2022, that tunnels dug by IS cells ran under houses in the two neighborhoods, aligns with what residents told Syria Direct: That, citing the existence of tunnels, the SDF brought in machinery to demolish their homes.
Syria Direct attempted to contact the AANES-affiliated co-presidency of Hasakah for comment on damages in the vicinity of al-Sinaa prison, as well as promises made to compensate affected homeowners, but received no response as of the time of publication.
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