Young children go barefoot and carry precious water jugs through the muddy, unpaved streets of the Gewayran neighborhood on the outskirts of Hasaka in north-eastern Syria, where residents suffer daily from the effects of more than a decade of war.
Death and fear fly especially over the eastern part of the district, where 4,500 people live between a cemetery full of tombstones of "martyrs" and the Al Sina prison, where several thousand fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) are serving their sentences, according to its acronym in English).
A woman and a child carry several jugs of water through a street in the Gewayran neighborhood, on the outskirts of the city of Al Hasaka, northeast Syria.
Dozens of ex-combatants of the Islamic State (ISIS, for its acronym in English) fled from the neighboring Al Sina prison after a jihadist attack that tried to free them and Kurdish militias and extremists clashed for 10 days in this district, where the traces of violence are still flagrant.
No neighbor has received compensation to rebuild his house and everyone fears a new attack.JIMota
Zalya Ali Hasan is 65 years old and poses in front of the ruins of her home.
She claims that the bulldozers used by the Kurdish forces to find the terrorists destroyed both her house and that of her other neighbours.
Thousands of residents of the area fled the fighting after warning from the authorities.
So far she has not received any help to rebuild her home and she has had to go live with her son. JIMota
Alia Hasan, 52, with her son Faruk and some neighbors in front of what used to be their house.
Only one room resisted the attacks and she has just put an awning on it in order to protect herself from the cold and winter rains.
She blames ISIS for infiltrating the neighborhood.
“The terrorists moved from house to house.
The authorities vandalized any place where they thought there might be suspects, ”she says.JIMota
Ahmed Ayad Mustafa points out the damage to his home.
This former tractor driver is 79 years old and lives with his wife.
Several NGOs have given them $40 and a water tank to help them.JIMota
Malika Jadr Abdallah, 30, poses with her children in front of her house.
She was able to return a month and a half after the fighting in Gewayran ended, due to the proximity of her home and the prison.
Most of the house is destroyed, there are no doors or windows, but she lives there with her three children, without furniture and surrounded by humidity and darkness.
The woman herself blames the 'bulldozers' used by the Kurdish authorities.JIMota
Boys and girls from Gewayran play at one end of this neighborhood, very close to the cemetery.
Life goes on as normal, although they are on high alert for the terrorist threat.
They live very close to Al Sina prison, where thousands of ex-ISIS fighters are imprisoned, after the fall of their last Syrian stronghold in Al Baguz.
The group's sleeper cells roam the area and new attacks are feared as soon as the local authorities let their guard down.JIMota
Mussa Said Al Aissa, 40, covers the windows of her house on the outskirts of Hasaka, Syria, with cloth because she has no money to put up windows.
He works maintaining antennas and is rebuilding his home, where he lives with his wife, with the help of relatives.
The bulldozers used by the authorities also destroyed his home.
He has not received compensation.JIMota
Noora Mohamed Iftiaj, 55, with her husband Hamed Ayad Mustafa, 75 (on the right) and several neighbors, in their home, badly damaged after clashes between Kurdish militias and jihadists in the area in January 2022 from Al Sina prison, in the Gewayran district (northeast Syria).JIMota
The water tank that supplied Noora Mohamed Iftiaj and Hamed Ayad Mustafa, destroyed during clashes in the Gewayran neighborhood of northeast Syria.
According to official sources, the death toll was 121 among the Kurdish forces and 371 prisoners and jihadist fighters.JIMota
Ali Ibrahim Al Abud walks through the ruins of his uncle's house in the Gewayran district of north-eastern Syria.
He assures that only around him there are eight destroyed houses, denying the much lower figures of the local authorities.
An independent United Nations commission estimated that there was "damage to 40 civilian buildings in the neighborhoods adjacent to the prison" of Al Sina, which the Islamists attacked in January 2022 to try to free the more than 3,500 imprisoned ex-combatants.
The subsequent clashes caused significant material damage in this Syrian neighborhood.JIMota
The lack of clean water is another problem plaguing this humble neighborhood and the city of Hasaka after years of war and crisis.
Families pile up with jugs in front of the tanks installed in the area, which have been donated by different NGOs.JIMota
Dozens of bullet and projectile impacts on one of the facades of the Gewayran district, on the outskirts of Hasaka (northeast Syria) a year after the fighting between Kurdish forces and the Islamic State.JIMota
Husain Madat, 72, points to a wall in his house, badly damaged by clashes between Kurdish forces and ISIS fighters in January 2022.
This 72-year-old man lives with his wife and three other families in a house with several rooms and has no money to repair the damage.JIMota
Many parts of the eastern part of the Gewayran district, on the outskirts of the city of Hasaka, remain destroyed or are being rebuilt by the inhabitants.
The Kurdish forces that control this part of north-eastern Syria admit that the current situation is worrying and that there is a risk that ISIS will carry out another attack to free prisoners from Al Sina prison, as happened in January 2022. jimota
The demolished houses and bullet holes in the facades of the houses recall the horror experienced by the families exactly one year ago, when ISIS sleeper cells launched an attack on the prison to try to free the imprisoned ex-combatants.
It was the biggest wave of jihadist violence in Syria since the fall of its last stronghold in Baguz.
On January 20, 2022, two suicide drivers threw their vehicles loaded with fuel and explosives against the gates of the prison.
Hundreds of the more than 3,500 jihadists imprisoned at the time seized the weapons from the guards.
There were some who entrenched themselves with hostages inside the jail and others fled to nearby neighborhoods, such as Gewayran, where thousands of terrified families fled after the notice of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Kurdish-Arab militias in charge of the security of the prison and this area.
I was sleeping in my room when I heard screams.
Right here, under the window, two boys were killed.
They were from the SDF
Mohamed Ahmed al Majbu, resident of Gewayran
With her young son in her arms, Aisha Abbas remembers the panic when she saw dozens of jihadists break into her house, which still bears the impact of the projectiles on the façade.
“Several Daesh (Arabic acronym for ISIS) fighters entered one of the rooms and we had to escape because they were targeted by the authorities,” she explains.
Ten days later, the SDF retook full control, with US military aid and after intense fighting.
Upon returning, many residents found their houses totally or partially destroyed.
A year later, the families have not received compensation, at most some symbolic aid from NGOs, and the area remains on high alert for possible new extremist attacks.
Missed by the foreigners who roam the neighborhood, Mohamed Ahmed al Majbu, 38, peeks through the walls of his house, which he is trying to rebuild with the help of his family.
“I was sleeping in my room when I heard screams.
Right here, under the window, two boys were killed.
They were from the FDS ”, he says, with a serious expression and an amazing coldness.
The number of casualties in the Kurdish-Arab forces during the clashes reached 121, according to official sources, who estimate that at least 371 ex-combatants in prison and jihadists also died in the attack.
Mohamed Ahmed al Majbu, 38, poses in front of his house, badly damaged by fighting, in the Gewayran district of north-eastern Syria.JIMota
An independent United Nations commission estimated that there was "damage to 40 civilian buildings in the neighborhoods adjacent to the prison."
Official sources calculated an even lower figure, but it is enough to take a tour of the area to confirm that the destruction was much more important.
Less than 100 euros from an NGO in a year
Misery and helplessness is repeated in most of the conversations of the residents of this area of Gewayran.
Mahmud Mustafa, a 38-year-old taxi driver, found his home a mountain of rubble and now lives with his wife and children in a rented house.
In one year he claims to have received only 100 dollars (94 euros) from an NGO.
“The whole area has been greatly affected by Daesh's infiltration,” he explains.
This is also the case of Ahmed Ayad Mustafá, a 79-year-old former tractor driver who received 40 dollars (37 euros) from a humanitarian organization to repair the roof of his home and got Caritas to provide him with a new water tank since the his was useless.
Some families directly blame Kurdish-Arab forces for bulldozing their homes during raids looking for jihadists.
“The situation was complicated.
There were many civilians and we could not act by air or with heavy artillery.
The terrorists were hiding in the houses and there were clashes.
For this reason, as a precaution, we prefer to use bulldozers, to protect families”, answers Siamand Ali, spokesman for the SDF.
Alia Hasan, 52, lives in the only room in her house that resisted the fighting.
Until recently she had no roof and now she is covered with an awning, in order to keep out the cold and rain of winter.
The woman corroborates Ali's version and accuses the jihadists of destroying the neighborhood.
“They used our houses to take shelter and it is normal for the authorities, as a precaution, to tear down everything that seemed to them a threat,” she stresses.
Turkey has started a major offensive in the northeast of the country in recent weeks.
This forces us to focus all our efforts on that and put aside the fight against Daesh.
Siamand Ali, SDF spokesman
The jihadist threat persists
Ali admits that the authorities cannot respond to all the problems in the region.
“The city of Kobane [in northern Syria] ended up in ruins after the fighting against Daesh to free it in 2015. People are rebuilding their houses however they can.
We do what we can.
The most important thing is the security of northeast Syria, ”he guarantees.
Alia Hasan, 52, with her son Faruk, next to the ruins of their house.JIMota
But Ali admits that the jihadist threat in the region is significant today.
Not only because of the presence of the Al Sina prison, but also because of the proximity of the Al Hol camp, which houses more than 50,000 ISIS women and children and is also one of the targets of extremist attacks.
“Turkey has started a major offensive in the northeast of the country in recent weeks.
This forces us to focus all our efforts on that and put aside the fight against Daesh, which is very present here and is waiting for chaos to attack again, ”he explains.
Meanwhile, the residents live in suspense because they see that the raids against the sleeper cells of the Islamic State in the area, which numbered in the dozens until just a few months ago, have been reduced due to the lack of means and the pressing problems on other fronts. .
They know they live just a few meters from hundreds of imprisoned ex-jihadist combatants and they want answers, but a year after the attack on Al Sina prison, silence and fear continue to hover over Gewayran.
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