Syrian security forces in the northeastern Raqqa province released 126 inmates from a prison which had been run by the terrorist group YPG, all of them under the age of 18, Alikhbaria Syria TV said on Saturday.
Quoting an unnamed security source, the channel said: “Internal security released 126 prisoners from Al Aqtan prison in Raqqa, all of them under 18.”
Information Minister Hamza al Mustafa said on the US social media company X that footage posted by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) showed the detainees’ release.
“These children are not merely detainees; they are sons and daughters whose childhoods were stolen. They should have been in schools and playgrounds, not behind prison walls. Every face among them carries a story of fear, separation, and lost innocence,” he added.
Al Mustafa stressed that “there is no slogan, justification, or security reason that can explain the presence of a child in a prison cell,” saying that their plight wounds the conscience of humanity.
On X, presidential spokesman Ahmed Muaffaq Zaidan called the detention a “full-fledged scandal carried out by gangs outside the bounds of time and place.”
On Friday, the Justice Ministry announced that it had officially taken over Al Aqtan prison after YPG terrorists withdrew from it as part of extending state authority and restoring institutions to operate under the law.
The Interior Ministry also began reviewing the detainees’ files.
On Friday, the Syrian Army announced that its units had begun transferring YPG elements from Al Aqtan prison and its surroundings in Raqqa to the city of Ayn al Arab, east of Aleppo, saying this represents the first phase of implementing the January 18 agreement, paving the way for the government to take over the facility.
