Non-state allies
83-509: Islamic Front may refer to: Islamic Front (Syria) , a merger of Syrian rebel groups Syrian Islamic Front , former Syrian rebel group, replaced by the Islamic Front Somali Islamic Front, another name for Jabhatul Islamiya , a Somali insurgent group Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
166-1046: A military prison near Damascus in Syria operated by the Syrian government . The prison has been used to hold thousands of prisoners, both civilian detainees and anti-government rebels. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated in January 2021 that 30,000 detainees have perished in Sednaya from torture, ill-treatment and mass executions since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War , while Amnesty International estimated in February 2017 "that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015." Overall, human rights organizations have identified over 27 prisons and detention centers run by Assad's regime around
249-558: A bomb went off as a high-level meeting was going on near an ammunition dump in Idlib province. In 2014, several units left al-Tawhid Brigade , including the Elite Islamic Battalions and the 1st Regiment. There was also tension between Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham. By March 2015, it was considered effectively defunct by analysts as one of its key components, Suqour al-Sham, merged into Ahrar al-Sham. The group
332-465: A building in the prison complex that was modified to support the crematorium. The photographs, taken over the course of several years, beginning in 2013, do not prove the building is a crematorium, but show construction consistent with such use." Evidence suggesting crematorium use includes 2015 photographs showing all buildings at the complex covered in rooftop snowmelt except for a single building (suggesting "a significant internal heat source") as well as
415-535: A caliphate. As a result, the United States government has not recognized the group to be a danger to American lives. However, many of the United States allies could back this group which politically could be an issue for the United States. The Islamic Front released its charter on the Internet in late November 2013, outlining its aims and objectives, although the document avoided providing a clear vision of
498-401: A close second was government officials (nineteen attacks); Forty three percent of the attacks were against military personnel, thirty five percent of the attacks were against government officials, and all other attacks involved were around twenty percent of the attacks. Sednaya Prison Sednaya Prison ( Arabic : سجن صيدنايا Sajn Ṣaydnāyā ), nicknamed the " Human Slaughterhouse " is
581-826: A detainee to “confess”, as it is in branches of the security forces, but instead as a method of punishment and degradation. The most common form of torture used at Saydnaya is regular and brutal beatings. Detainees told Amnesty International that the beatings they endured were sometimes so severe that they caused life-long damage and disability or death... Former detainees told Amnesty International that they were also subjected to sexual violence at Saydnaya, including rape. According to former detainee “Hassan”: “They were making people take their clothes off, and touch each other in sensitive places, and rape each other too. I went through this only one time, but I heard about it happening so much.” The detainees were also deprived of food and water, and had been raped and forced to rape each other. One of
664-529: A discharge stack, a likely firewall, and a likely air intake. The State Department, in a later press briefing, agreed that snowmelt on the roof presented as one of the pieces of evidence "consistent with a crematorium" could possibly just indicate it is a warmer part of a building. Acting assistant secretary of state for the Middle East Stuart E. Jones stated that as many as 50 prisoners a day were killed in mass hangings. Jones stated: "Although
747-563: A fair trial. Four main issues that were raised were his young age when arrested, that he had been held in isolation for more than two years, reportedly tortured and that he was sentenced by the SSSC (Supreme State Security Court) in June 2005 to six years in prison despite no substantial evidence. All the SSSC knew was that al-Hariri belonged to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The Syrian Human Rights Committee reported in 2004 about people being arrested
830-427: A guard entered the room made them become attuned to the smallest sounds. In a video interview, a former Sednaya detainee says "You try to build an image based on the sounds you hear. You know the person by the sound of his footsteps. You can tell the food times by the sound of the bowl. If you hear screaming, you know newcomers have arrived. When there is no screaming, we know they are accustomed to Sednaya." Sound became
913-601: A location of torture but itself as an instrument in its perpetration. Forensic Architecture's project on Sednaya is part of a larger campaign run by Amnesty International. The project aims to pressure the Syrian government to allow independent monitors into the detention centres. Amnesty urged Russia and the United States to use their power to admit independent monitors to investigate conditions in Syria's torture prisons. The 2017 Amnesty Report concludes: "Saydnaya Military Prison
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#1732765448504996-450: A part of your skin – normal electric cables, plastic water pipes of different sizes and metal bars. Also, they have created what they call the 'tank belt', which is made out of tyre that has been cut into strips... They make a very specific sound; it sounds like a small explosion. I was blindfolded the whole time, but I would try to see somehow. All you see is blood: your own blood, the blood of others. After one hit, you lose your sense of what
1079-407: A peaceful non-violent protest told Amnesty International that at Sednaya prisoners were forced to choose between dying themselves or killing one of their own relatives or friends. The former inmate also stated that in the first prison he was at, prisoners were also forced into cannibalism , but that prison was "heaven" compared to Sednaya Prison. According to the inmate, the other prison (Branch 215)
1162-423: A result of the extermination policies, Amnesty International itself calculates the number of deaths to between 5,000 and 13,000. The Syrian Justice Ministry denied the report issued by Amnesty International, describing it as "devoid of truth" and considering it to be a part of a smear campaign targeted against Syrian government. The Syrian Justice Ministry holds a view that motivation for the allegations to smear
1245-484: A rising star in the jihadist community and a key financier of rebel efforts in northern Syria -- released a video message backing Islamic Front (Syria) on social media platforms." However, ISIS is feeling uneasy from the formation of the Islamic Front because they are competitors in Syria. The United States has not designated the Islamic Front (Syria) as a global jihadist group because they do not want to establish
1328-710: A secret military court. In interviews with Amnesty, prisoners described the trials as sham for lasting only one to three minutes. While some prisoners would be told they were being transferred to a civilian prison when they instead were to be executed, other detainees do not even get to see a judge. The Syrian Mus’ab al-Hariri belonged to the banned organization, the Muslim Brotherhood , and lived in exile in Saudi Arabia until his return to Syria in 2002 with his mother. She worried that their return would cause problems for her son because of his political stand but
1411-479: A suicide out of fear to be killed by the prisoners. After a long battle, military reinforcements from the capital arrived to Sednaya and laid siege around the prison. Some tried to break in but in vain. After 10 days of negotiation, the government agreed on a evacuating the injured who faced torture in Tishreen hospital and 6 of them died under torture there. The government promised to punish the perpetrators and told
1494-641: A total of 10,000–20,000 detainees and is under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Defense while operated by the Military Police. Detainees have usually spent months or years in detention elsewhere before being transferred to Sednaya. It was not until after the 2011 crisis when this started to happen. The way in which detainees are being transferred to this facility has been internationally recognized and criticized, mainly by Amnesty International . The transfers usually take place after holding unfair trials at
1577-491: A week earlier following an air strike in Aleppo, where he was meeting other leaders. A group member, Adil Fistok, said the planning was in the works for seven months; Fistok stated that "One of the major obstacles we faced was the lust for power by some leaders. But eventually everyone made concessions in order to make this project happen." According to him, the primary challenge was a lack of money and weapons. In December 2013,
1660-519: Is a field court, where most 'judges' are from the secret police." The lack of accessibility to reports from journalists and monitoring groups have made reliable information about the prison very difficult to find. The only available sources on the incidents inside the Sednaya prison derive from the memories of former detainees. In April 2016, Amnesty International and Forensic Architecture traveled to Turkey to meet five Sednaya survivors. The researchers used architectural and acoustic modeling to reconstruct
1743-413: Is a human slaughterhouse. The bodies of Saydnaya’s victims are taken away by the truckload. Many are hanged, secretly, in the middle of the night. Others die as a result of torture, and many are killed slowly through the systematic deprivation of food, water, medicine and medical care. It is inconceivable that this is not authorized by the highest levels of the Syrian political leadership." On May 15, 2017,
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#17327654485041826-561: Is an occurrence of "organ harvesting". Sednaya had come into the public eye when the 2014 Syrian detainee report , also known as the Caesar report got unveiled. It was authored by the legal team consisting of The Right Honourable Sir Desmond De Silva QC , the former Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, the former lead prosecutor of ex-President Slobodan Milošević of Yugoslavia, before
1909-423: Is happening. You're in shock. But then the pain comes." Another former detainee is Samer al-Ahmed who, on a regular basis, was forced to squeeze his head through the small hatch near the bottom of his cell door. It was then straightened out by the prison guards when they, with all their weight, jumped on his head. This required that al-Ahmed's head was pressed against the edge of the hatch. The guards would continue
1992-536: The Bab al-Hawa crossing . This caused conflict between the two groups that lasted until later in December 2013. The new group claimed 70,000 fighters, although it was estimated by Charles Lister of IHS Jane's that the total number of fighters the Islamic Front commanded on formation was at least 45,000. The formation of the front followed the death of Liwa al-Tawhid's military leader, Abdul Qader Saleh , from wounds
2075-585: The Salafist group Ahrar ash-Sham – a major component of the Islamic Front alliance – joined with jihadist groups under the Army of Conquest operations room umbrella, successfully campaigning against the Syrian Arab Army in the northern districts from March to September 2015. The group continued its nominal membership of the Islamic Front alliance, despite its more jihadist orientation. By early 2015,
2158-683: The United States Department of State accused the Syrian government of engaging in mass executions at the prison, and burning the bodies of the executed in a crematorium built in Sednaya Prison in an effort to conceal the killings. According to the State Department a crematorium was constructed with the purpose of hiding the evidence of the thousands murdered at the prison. The State Department "released commercial satellite photographs showing what it described as
2241-624: The 55,000 photos encompassing around 11,000 victims from the report are from other detention facilities in Damascus, some of them are also from the Sednaya prison. Prisoners were also often transferred between different facilities: some detainees were transferred to Sednaya from the Mezze Air Force Branch, while others were taken from Sednaya to Tishreen. In early 2017 the Sednaya Military Prison again came into
2324-511: The International Criminal Tribune for the former Yugoslavia, and Professor David M. Crane, the first Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, with the help of a forensic team. The legal and forensic teams came to the conclusion that the photos Caesar took were credible, and that they clearly showed "signs of starvation, brutal beatings, strangulation, and other forms of torture and killing." While most of
2407-430: The Islamic Front (Syria). A leaked German intelligence document from May 2015 suggested the Islamic Front and Ahrar ash-Sham in particular had received weapons from Turkey. Other Terrorist groups had supported the Islamic Front (Syria). The Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) have publicity supported the Islamic Front (Syria) as long as the Islamic Front does not create any western ties or leave out Arab regimes. "Muhammad al-Mohaisany,
2490-420: The Islamic Front at the time of its founding was announced as Shura Council Leader: Ahmed Abu Issa (Suqour al-Sham), Deputy Shura Council Leader: Abu Omar Hreitan (Liwa al-Tawhid), General Secretary: Sheikh Abu Rateb (Liwa al-Haqq), Sharia Office: Abul-Abbas al-Shami (Ahrar ash-Sham), Political Office: Hassan Abboud (Ahrar ash-Sham) and Military Office: Zahran Alloush (Jaysh al-Islam) A Liwa al-Tawhid member said
2573-581: The Islamic Front seized the FSA headquarters, along with key supply warehouses in Atmeh , as well as the nearby border crossing with Turkey at Bab al-Hawa . FSA Chief-of-Staff Brigadier General Salim Idris fled via Turkey to Doha , Qatar, during the assault. However, the FSA denied that Idris had left Syria, and said that the Islamic Front was asked to help the FSA fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and
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2656-517: The Islamic Front was being described as virtually defunct, with the largest member groups Ahrar ash-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam remaining separate entities, and the smaller IF factions ( Liwa al-Haqq , Suqour al-Sham Brigade and Kurdish Islamic Front ) being absorbed into Ahrar ash-Sham. After three months of protests in 2011 , many Islamist prisoners managed to be released from Sednaya Prison , including Zahran Alloush and Hassan Aboud . They formed their own Islamist groups and took up arms against
2739-625: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. In May 2014, analyst Charles Lister estimated that the Front had 50,000-60,000 fighters, making it "largest and most militarily powerful alliance in Syria". Several defections from the Islamic Front to Free Syrian Army groups were reported in 2014, including around 800 fighters in eastern Aleppo Governorate in August 2014, with new FSA units created by
2822-645: The Levant ), saying: "They killed the people of Islam and leave the idol worshippers" and "They use the verses talking about the disbelievers and implement it on the Muslims". In 2013, before the Front was formed, its future military leader Zahran Alloush gave a speech attacking Shi'ites , whom he called " Rafidis ", the Alawites and "the Zoroastrians ", saying "the mujahediin of Sham [the Levant ] will wash
2905-694: The Levant . The FSA confirmed on 13 December 2013 that the Islamic Front had obtained machine guns and ammunition that were not supposed to be in the possession of the Islamists. Later that month, however, the Islamic Front and the Free Syrian Army reconciled. By early 2014, the Islamic Front had condemned the actions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant; and some factions within the alliance attacked it. Several Islamic Front brigades, including Suqour al-Sham and Ahrar ash-Sham , developed internal divisions on how to or even whether to confront
2988-542: The National Organization for Human Rights commented on SANA's release by asking to form a committee of activists which can visit the detainees and ascertain their conditions and he confirmed that the number of prisoners in Sednaya was between 1500 and 2000. 200 of them had Islamic backgrounds and most of them participated in the Iraq war. Al-Qurabi called to investigating the massacre's perpetrators and announcing
3071-675: The Syrian Embassy in Saudi Arabia had assured her that this would not happen. However, shortly after al-Hariri's return, he was sentenced by the Syrian Security forces on 24 July 2002. At the time of arrest, he was only 14 years old. Even though the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention announced al-Hariri's detention as arbitrary, the authorities took no step to amend his situation. The UN Working Group based its announcement on their assessment that he did not receive
3154-627: The Syrian Government. Many of them became leaders of Islamist groups in the Islamic Front such as Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar ash-Sham . Some of those groups formed an Islamist alliance named the Syrian Islamic Front . In November 2013, the Syrian Islamic Front was dissolved, as the organization was replaced by the Islamic Front. On 22 November 2013, seven Islamist groups agreed to a pact that would dissolve
3237-403: The Syrian government's international reputation come from recent "military victories against terrorist groups". After months of anti-government protests in 2011 , many prisoners, including secular and Islamist detainees, were released in several amnesties. Zahran Alloush , Abu Shadi Aboud (brother of Hassan Aboud ) and Ahmed Abu Issa were some of the more prominent prisoners released from
3320-404: The Syrian official news agency, issued a short press release on July 6, stating that "a number of prisoners…incited chaos and breached public order in the prison and attacked other fellow prisoners…during an inspection by the prison administration." The agency reported that the situation required "the intervention of the unit of guards to bring order to the prison." Ammar al-Qurabi the director of
3403-440: The Syrian people" and only those with blood on their hands should be held accountable. His spokesman went on to claim that the sectarian and Islamist rhetoric Alloush had previously made was only intended for internal consumption and to rally his fighters. The Islamic Front (Syria) has claimed for forty five attacks from 2012 to 2015. The country that the Islamic Front (Syria) has been active in has only been in Syria and only in
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3486-614: The authority of the Syrian National Coalition , and criticism of the FSA's Supreme Military Council (SMC), the Islamic Front was aligned with other Syrian opposition -affiliated groups under the Syrian Revolutionary Command Council . However on 3 December 2013, Liwa al-Tawhid withdrew from the command of the FSA and criticized its leadership. On 6 December 2013, fighters from the Islamic Front seized several FSA bases and depots at
3569-401: The bodies of the executed, although Amnesty's investigation did not find evidence of this having happened. Located 30 kilometers (19 mi) north of the Syrian capital Damascus, Sednaya Military Prison is known for its torture of people and innocent civilians that started the revolution in 2011. It is designed for the purpose of quietly slaughtering innocent civilians, men, women, children and
3652-715: The civil war. One member of the political assembly of the group has stated that the Islamic Front could accept Syria as a democracy, as long as sharia is "sovereign". The Islamic Front said it aspires "to establish an independent state where God's merciful law is sovereign and where the individuals of this state enjoy justice and a dignified life." According to the Islamic Front, they only want to unify Muslims under one Islamic State. The group has stated that they will not punish non-Muslims. The Islamic Front (Syria) has been very open to allowing other smaller rebel groups join their movement as long as they share similar beliefs. The Islamic Front criticized ISIS ( Islamic State of Iraq and
3735-425: The country where detainees are routinely tortured and killed. A defector from Assad's sources smuggled out tens of thousands of photographs from these prisons, showing the bodies of those who had been murdered. The defector stated that he had personally photographed the dead and that archives of thousand more such photographs of other victims existed. A former inmate of the prison who was detained for participating in
3818-589: The country, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA). An anonymous spokesman for the group stated that it would not have ties with the Syrian National Coalition , although a member of the political bureau of the group, Ahmad Musa, stated that he hoped for recognition by the Syrian National Council in line with what he suggested "the Syrian people want. They want a revolution and not politics and foreign agendas." Despite non-recognition of
3901-399: The defectors, who condemned the Islamic Front's Islamist and sectarian practices, especially against Christians and Alawites who initially supported the opposition. On 9 September 2014, Hassan Abboud, the Islamic Front's political leader, and Abu Abdulmalek al-Sharei, the head of the Islamic Front's Sharia Council, were killed along with many other senior Ahrar ash-Sham commanders, when
3984-425: The director of the prison and he was very strict and harsh with detainees. He worsened their life conditions by halting visits and cutting electricity on the prison for a long period of time. Diab Serriya, a former detainee, had been accused of forming a youth opposition group. He was arrested in 2006 and released in 2011 after a general amnesty. “ We had the feeling that the prisoners would rebel in any moment because
4067-553: The elderly. Even children are born inside the prison due to the brutal rape of the women by the guards. Not only women are raped, children and men are also subject to rape and sexual assault. There are different social groups who are at risk. These can be groups of labourers, business people, students, bloggers, university professors, lawyers, doctors, activists defending the rights of minority groups, people helping their neighbours or journalists. Detainees may be either men, women or even children. The prison consists of two buildings with
4150-682: The filth (رجس) of the Rafida and the Rafidia from Sham... if Allah wills it, until they cleanse Bilad al-Sham [the land of the Levant] from the filth of the Majous [Fireworshippers] who have fought the religion of Allah"; "Shia are still servile and small (أذلاء صاغرين ) throughout history"; and "I bid you, o unclean (أنجاس) Rafida, that as the Banu Umayya [ Umayyads ] destroyed your skulls in the past,
4233-411: The future. The Islamic Front's charter rejects the concepts of representative democracy and secularism , instead seeking to establish an Islamic state ruled by a Majlis-ash-Shura and implementing sharia . It acknowledges the ethnic and religious minorities that live in Syria, while also welcoming the foreign fighters who have joined the anti-Assad forces and rejecting non-military means of ending
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#17327654485044316-590: The groups individually and lead to the formation of the Islamic Front. The groups were: The Syrian Islamic Front tweeted that it had disbanded and its component groups would hereby operate under the Islamic Front. Not all groups in the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front joined the Islamic Front, although many of the key leaders of the SILF did. The Syrian Islamic Liberation Front announced its dissolution on 26 November 2013. The leadership of
4399-463: The instrument by which inmates navigated and measured their environment. Therefore, sound also became one of the essential tools with which the prison could be digitally reconstructed. The sound artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan used a technique of “echo profiling” which made it possible for him to decide the size of cells, stairwells, and corridors. He played different sound reflections and asked former inmates to match these tones of different decibel levels to
4482-510: The investigation's result. Also, he asked for enhancing the living conditions and the medical care of the detainees. The Sednaya prison massacre was not the only incident of human rights abuses in the prison's history. Other examples range from particular testimonies of people who had been incarcerated in Sednaya to organized leaks and research done on the topic. Omar al-Shogre, a Syrian teenager has testified that he had gone through 11 Syrian prisons during his several years of imprisonment. Sednaya
4565-429: The levels of specific incidents inside the prison. Based on these testimonies and with the help of an architect working with 3D modeling software, Amnesty and Forensic Architecture have constructed a model on the entire prison. As they remembered, the witnesses added objects like torture tools, blankets, furniture, and areas where they recalled them being used. In Sednaya, the architecture of the prison emerges not only as
4648-477: The living situation was unbearable.” Diab said that on 26 March 2008, a fight broke between a prisoner and a security guard, which led to Ali Kher Bek's rage. On the next day he walked, with other security forces, through the prison shouting at the prisoners and insulting them. He visited all the dungeons of the prison. The security forces dragged prisoners in charge of all the prison's wards and punished them. Some detainees kept shouting “ Allah Akbar ” and banging on
4731-514: The major cities. The most deadly attacks occurred on the same day on December 14, 2014 on two different military bases. The Islamic Front killed ninety soldiers at each location and took fifteen soldiers hostage and their where about are still unknown to this day. The majority of their attacks are assaults with explosives (thirty seven attacks) but they have used armed assaults as well in their attacks as well (three times). The Majority of their targets were military personnel (twenty three attacks) but
4814-427: The metal doors. A rebellion broke out and the prison went out of control. Serriya told Zaman Alwasel Newspaper that security forces used tear gas and opened fire in the air to intimidate prisoners, who most of them ran to the roof and started to burn blankets, plastic bags and wooden pieces, to send a message that the prison was in chaos and urgent helped was needed. When the security forces could not exert control over
4897-707: The military police changed all the locks of the prison cells on the night of 4 July 2008. On the day after a search operation was launched through all the prisons quarters, in which the security guards trampled on copies of the Quran. The act triggered fury among Muslim detainees who rushed to collect the Quran copies. The guards opened fire and killed nine of the prisoners. Among the nine killed prisoners, they were able to identify eight of them, those were: Zakaria Affash, Mohammed Mahareesh, Abdulbaqi Khattab, Ahmed Shalaq, Khalid Bilal, Mo’aid Al-Ali, Mohannad Al-Omar and Khader Alloush. Clashes have been reported after this incident where
4980-452: The old names "will disappear and the groups will now melt [ sic ] into the new merger. There will be no such thing as Liwa al-Tawhid." The head of the group's Consultative Council, Amad Essa al-Sheikh , said the group sought "a paradigm shift in the armed rebellion by closing ranks and mobilising them to become the real alternative to the dying regime." He added that the group would cooperate with what it called "loyal fighters" in
5063-499: The people of the Ghouta and the people of Sham will destroy your skulls in the future". Alloush and Hassan Aboud, heading the Islamic Front's political office, have denounced democracy and called for an Islamic state to succeed Assad. However in a May 2015 interview with McClatchy journalists, Alloush used moderate rhetoric, claiming that Syrians should decide what sort of state they wanted to live under and that Alawites were "part of
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#17327654485045146-529: The planned overthrow of the government of President Bashar al-Assad . It refused to recognise most formal structures of the Syrian opposition , such as the Syrian National Council . The alliance fragmented over the course of 2014. On 24 December 2014, the Islamic Front factions in the Aleppo Governorate formed the Levant Front alliance with other armed groups in northern Syria. In 2015,
5229-514: The prison and the survivors’ experiences at detention. As there are no images of the prison and because the prisoners were held in darkness under strictly enforced silence, researchers had to depend entirely on their memories and acute experience of sound, footsteps, door opening and locking and water dripping in the pipes among other things. The fact that prisoners rarely saw daylight, they were, consequently, forced to develop an acute relation to sound. Having to cover their eyes with their hands whenever
5312-399: The prison, the government launched negotiations with the prisoners, through which it agreed on providing fair trials for detainees, allowing family visits again, enhancing the living conditions, increasing the daily breaks's time, improving the quality of beverage and drinks, providing a proper medical care, in addition to immediate change for the unfair treatment of the prisoners. This incident
5395-512: The prison. After their release, many took up arms against the regime and became leaders of Islamist rebel groups including Jaysh al-Islam , Ahrar ash-Sham and Suqour al-Sham Brigade in the Syrian Civil War . There have repeatedly been reports on inhumane conditions for detainees in Sednaya (as well as other Syrian prisons ), ranging from torture and malnutrition to spontaneous executions without fair trials. "Seventy-five per cent of people who go into Sednaya do not come out alive. It
5478-573: The prisoners and the military police until prisoners overpowered them. In addition to exerting control over the whole prison, and retaining more than 1245 out of 1500 from military police. From the outer fence of the prison, security forces opened fire and killed the first group, which attempted to flee the prison due to the unbearable situations. The group was: Wael al-Khous, Zakaria Affash, Daham Jebran, Ahmed Shalaq, Mohammed Abbas, Hassan Al-Jaberie, Mohammed Eld Al-Ahmad, Khader Alloush, Abdulbaqi Khattab, Maen Majarish and Mo’aid Al-Ali. Fearing suffocation of
5561-513: The prisoners that the director of Tishreen hospital was fired. It also improved the quality of the beverage. During this time prisoners released the hostages. And better treatment has appeared but not for long. While Sarah Leah Whitson , Director of the Middle East and North Africa human rights said: “President Bashar al-Assad should immediately order an independent investigation into the police's use of lethal force at Sednaya prison”, SANA ,
5644-520: The public eye when an Amnesty International report was released on February 7. The report, the result of the research conducted by Amnesty International which took place between December 2015 and December 2016, raises a plethora of accusations against the Syrian regime. It alleges that the regime has at its highest instances, authorized the killings of thousands of people in the Sednaya prison since 2011. After interviewing 84 people, out of which 31 were former detainees, Amnesty International has concluded that
5727-414: The regime has implemented systematic torture in Sednaya. One former detainee, Salam, a lawyer from Aleppo described the torture process: "The soldiers will practice their 'hospitality' with each new group of detainees during the 'welcome party'… You are thrown to the ground and they use different instruments for the beatings: electric cables with exposed copper wire ends – they have little hooks so they take
5810-399: The regime's many atrocities are well documented, we believe that the building of a crematorium is an effort to cover up the extent of mass murders taking place in Sednaya prison." Amnesty International, who had interviewed former guards and inmates of the prison, have remarked that none of them have told them about the existence of the crematorium. According to other escapees of the prison,
5893-485: The same year because of political reasons. To offer the suspected individuals human rights defenders and lawyers was not self-evident and as in the case of Mus’ab al-Hariri, hundreds of prisoners remained in long detention without trial or following sentences enforced after unfair trials. It was also reported that no respect was given to the poor health condition of prisoners and that these were still held in rigorous conditions. According to The Syrian Human Rights Committee,
5976-421: The tear gas and the running from the bloody scenes inside the building, the prisoners dragged some of the hostages to the roof so they can communicate with the military forces outside and find a way out of the dilemma. However, the governmental forces opened fire and killed almost 30 military police hostages and some prisoners who were with them. In addition to 10 hostages were killed by the prisoners and 6 committed
6059-400: The testifications states: "They beat me until I was lying on the ground and then they kicked me with their military boots, in the places where I have had my hip operations, until I passed out. When I woke up, I was back in the solitary cell – they had dragged me back there from that room – but my trousers had been opened and moved down a bit, my abaya [full-length robe] was open and my undershirt
6142-655: The title Islamic Front . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Islamic_Front&oldid=730136409 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Islamic Front (Syria) Non-state opponents Shi'ite groups Syrian-affiliated groups YPG and Allies Jihadist groups The Islamic Front ( Arabic : الجبهة الإسلامية , al-Jabhat al-Islāmiyyah )
6225-456: The torture until blood started flowing across the floor. Torture methods in Sednaya varied. One common interrogation technique called shabeh was described by one of the witnesses: "They had me stand on the barrel, and they tied the rope around my wrists. Then they took away the barrel. There was nothing below my feet. They were dangling in the air. They brought three sticks… [They were] hitting me everywhere… After they were done beating me with
6308-449: The total number of victims reached 25 detainees. However, the committee could not ascertain their identities. These testimonies are collected from three different sources. Two documentaries and a series of articles. The Black Box: The Death in Sednaya by Al Jazeera , The Road to Sednaya: We have Changed, Omar Abdullah by Orient News , and Sednaya Death speaks, Zaman Alwasl Newspaper. According to many detainees, in 2005 Ali Kher Bek became
6391-470: The wooden sticks, they took the cigarettes. They were putting them out all over my body. It felt like a knife excavating my body, cutting me apart." Other methods of torture consisted of leaving people in stress positions while beating them or torturing them with electricity. Describing the nature of the ongoing torture in the prison, the Amnesty report states: "In Saydnaya, torture is not used to force
6474-485: Was "to interrogate" (including through torture), but when that was done, you were moved to Sednaya "to die". Wide variety of inhumane torture practices are carried out in the prison; ranging from perpetual beatings, sexual assaults, decapitations, rapes, burnings to what are known as the "flying carpets". In 2017, the US State Department alleged that a crematorium had been built at the prison to dispose of
6557-568: Was a Sunni Islamist rebel group involved in the Syrian Civil War , which was formed by the union of seven separate groups on 22 November 2013. Its three largest components were Ahrar ash-Sham , the al-Tawhid Brigade and Jaysh al-Islam . The alliance was achieved by expanding the preceding Syrian Islamic Front alliance. It was described as "an umbrella organization rather than a full union", with constituent factions continuing to serve under their own distinct leaderships. The Islamic Front wanted to transform Syria into an Islamic state after
6640-409: Was known as “The first Rebellion” and lasted for one day. After this incident the prison went into loose policy. The internal doors were left open all the time, prisoners started to defy the security forces, and lenient treatment was obvious.,. The effect of “the first rebellion” had lasted till 5 July 2008 when the director launched an offensive to discipline the prisoners. Many fights broke between
6723-613: Was moved up. Everything was hurting, so I couldn't tell if I had been raped. It was overwhelming pain everywhere." When they did get food, it was often mixed with blood. Amnesty International has managed to confirm the names of 375 individuals executed in Sednaya prison, and while the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch, suggests that tens of thousands of detainees have died in Sednaya and other government-run detention centers since 2011 as
6806-490: Was the final one. He had described the events in Sednaya as beginning with a "welcome party" during which new inmates were beaten with "metal parts from a tank". In Shogre's case, one officer beat ten newly arrived inmates. He states that "for 15 days [he] couldn't open [his] eyes or get up". After a month in Sednaya, Shogre was taken to a trial under the accusations for terrorism. The trial, he says, lasted for 5 seconds. He contracted tuberculosis there and witnessed what he thinks
6889-497: Was widely reported to be backed and armed by Saudi Arabia , although other analysts have said there is little evidence for Saudi Arabian support for factions other than Jaysh al-Islam. Other constituent factions, principally the Tawhid Brigade, have been reported as Qatari-backed. The Front has been widely reported as close to Turkey . The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s has been linked to some members in
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