Prisons holding ISIS members in Syria a breeding ground for radicalization, officials say

William Brangham:

It's been five years since the Islamic State, or ISIS, was defeated the U.S.-led military campaign in Syria.

But today, nearly 10,000 ISIS fighters remain jailed inside Syrian detention centers. Human rights groups call conditions in the prisons abusive, and local authorities warn they are a breeding ground for radicalization and could help spark an ISIS revival.

Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen traveled to Northeast Syria to meet high-security prisoners and the regional forces that are still battling ISIS.

Leila Molana-Allen:

The horrors of ISIS, a threat long past, the world believed. So, ISIS-K's devastating attack on Moscow came out of the blue.

But for the Middle Eastern governments and civilians who have been warning of the group's resurgence for many months now, it was all but inevitable. Here in Northeast Syria, where thousands of ISIS fighters are locked up, unsentenced in crumbling jails, and tens of thousands more ISIS-linked families languish in displacement camps, the Syrian Democratic Forces have been begging their Western allies to address the growing threat.

Siamand Ali, Military Spokesperson, Syrian Democratic Forces (through interpreter):

The international community thinks ISIS has been defeated and there is no risk for them. This kind of thinking has given the chance for ISIS to reorganize themselves. They rebuilt new groups and they began a new strategy to start again.

Leila Molana-Allen:

The vast desert between Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, the Badiya, is one of Syria's most deadly areas. ISIS controlled this territory for several years.

The rugged, open terrain here makes it easy for militants to conceal weapons and fighters, harass local farmers for money and plan operations.

We're on a patrol with the SDF through the lawless desert area leading up to the Iraqi border. There are many villages here where people still support ISIS and some of them hide sleep cells.

Whenever there's an alert, the commandos get out to investigate and speak to villagers. Some support ISIS. Many others are terrorized by them. They're trying to catch security threats and eliminate them before they can carry out an attack and to remind everyone who's in charge here.

Commander Zinar knows the danger. He was permanently maimed in a 2016 ISIS explosion.

Commander Zinar, Special Forces, Syrian Democratic Forces (through interpreter):

Our goal is to track down ISIS sleeper cells who are attacking and carrying out suicide bombings. We have done a lot of military operations in this area, but, still, they're reorganizing themselves.

Leila Molana-Allen:

With so much ground to cover and such a high threat level, more and more militants are slipping through the net. The huge ISIS prison break two years ago was staged from these sprawling sands.

Dozens of sleeper cells attacked using suicide bombs and armed trucks; 1,000 prisoners escaped. Over 100 were never recaptured, and 120 SDF officers and local civilians were killed.

The attack ended after 10 days only thanks to coalition airstrikes. Local authorities warned they couldn't defeat another escape attempt alone if U.S. forces leave Syria.

Nureddine Berham is a high security prisoner at Al Sina'a. We were given rare access to speak with him before the Moscow attack. A militant jihadist to his core, he's been joining up with Islamist militias to fight Western ideology since he traveled to Pakistan to support Osama bin Laden in the '90s.

Originally Jordanian, the rest of his family are American citizens, and he claims he traveled to the U.S. regularly on visas until the mid-2000s. In Syria, he signed up with ISIS as a suicide bomber, but was captured.

Nureddine Berham, Imprisoned ISIS Fighter (through interpreter):

I was waiting for my turn, and eagerly. So it didn't happen. Most of the brothers, if you were outside of this prison, I'm not going to tell that I'm — if I'm able to make every — every minute, a martyrdom operation, I will do it every second.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Berham was at the forefront of the prison break, handing weapons to other inmates. He says the prisoners managed to smuggle in weapons and mobile phones to receive instructions from the attackers outside.

Nureddine Berham:

The plan was, when we hear the bomb, when we hear the explosion, we have to break the walls and just break out. In like 15 or 20 minutes, we were taking control of the whole prison.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Authorities here wouldn't let us see inside the cells. Berham says the prisoners live in horrendous conditions, often more than 20 to a cell, and with many suffering from fungal infections and tuberculosis.

But that lack of oversight also allows them to continue their radicalization, operating a mini-Dawlat, Islamic State, unimpeded.

Nureddine Berham:

And inside the prison, we were still Dawlat. We were still implementing Sharia. We would rather die than to live this kind of life. We're fighters.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Berham says they will keep trying to break out until they succeed.

You have just told me you want to blow yourself up at any opportunity. You want any opportunity to fight America, to fight this government. How and why could you possibly be released?

Nureddine Berham:

It doesn't matter how long we stay in prison. We're not going to change it. This is the 11th time I be in prison. And every time, I go back, and, every time, I go back to fighting.

Leila Molana-Allen:

The prison was destroyed and the prisoners are now housed in a new facility. But the attack showed that keeping so many dangerous militants in these conditions with limited security forces is unsustainable.

There are thousands of ISIS-linked prisoners being held here in a city of fewer than 450,000 people. Many of those jails are in residential areas. The one just behind me, which holds some of the most dangerous captured ISIS fighters, is just meters from a busy shopping street and children playing in front of their homes.

Mohammad lives on this street. He knows just how real that threat is. His young family was at home when the shooting began, then banging on the front door.

Mohammad, Hasakah, Syria, Resident (through interpreter):

One of them was pointing a gun. The others walked in. They were all dressed in prison uniforms. Then the clashes, shelling and shooting started. They killed my cousin. They shot him in his head here, and it came out from the other side.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Escaped fighters occupied homes, taking residents hostage, as grenades rained down over the narrow streets, beheading several residents who didn't obey them.

Mohammad's 5-year-old son, Adam, hasn't slept through the night since.

Mohammad (through interpreter):

My son calls, "Dad, it's ISIS" in his sleep. "Daddy, will ISIS escape? Will they come again?"

What have these children done to live this horror? God forbid if they flee the prison again. What will happen to people?

Leila Molana-Allen:

The Syrian Democratic Forces estimate there are at least 10,000 ISIS fighters still active in the area, and that number is growing.

Now, in a speech posted online, ISIS leaders have called on their supporters to plan fresh attacks on cities around the globe. Former U.S. Army Colonel Myles Caggins was the coalition spokesman in Iraq and Syria at the height of the battle to defeat ISIS. For him, Northeast Syria's overflowing jails are a ticking time bomb.

Col. Myles Caggins (Ret.), U.S. Army: The world doesn't really want to deal with these 10,000 detainees. President Biden and his administration have followed the policy of the previous administration, where nobody really wants to talk much about Syria.

The American public, in particular, does not hear much about ISIS until there's something like a massive attack that happened in Russia. It is important, though, for the world to pay attention to ISIS.

There are wealthy individuals who support ISIS' ideology. The scale and type of attacks that they conduct do not require a lot of money, but they're able to get a large effect out of them by having these attacks in highly visible places and recording the attacks and sharing it as propaganda, propaganda that is desired — designed to inspire other members of ISIS. It's designed to inspire potential recruits.

Leila Molana-Allen:

Officials here are threatening to carry out their own trials if an international tribunal isn't established, but, in, reality courts here don't have the jurisdiction to try many of these prisoners.

With foreign nations refusing to take back their citizens, fighters sit in wait, plotting their escape and the group's return to power.

Nureddine Berham:

We have to fight to the last drop of our blood. We are more insisting now to fight you, America, and all that is fighting with you (speaking in foreign language) until it's either us or you guys.

Leila Molana-Allen:

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Leila Molana-Allen in Al Sina'a prison, Northeast Syria.