Black flag of ISIS flies from mangled helicopter after extremists take over airbase and destroy notorious prison where the Syrian regime tortured Assad's opponents
- Islamic State jihadis have taken over Syrian airbase and notorious jail
- The militants then used explosives to destroy the feared Tadmur Prison
- It was where the Assad regime tortured and beaten its political opponents
- Images released by the militants show the prison cells reduced to rubble
For decades, the mere mention of Tadmur Prison was enough to send chills down a Syrian's spine.
The notorious facility in the desert of central Syria was where thousands of dissidents were reported to have been beaten, humiliated and systematically tortured for opposing the Assad family's rule.
But this weekend the prison and its adjoining military airbase were demolished by Islamic State, which took over the site near the ancient town of Palmyra last month.
The black flag of ISIS sits atop a destroyed helicopter that once belonged to the Assad regime
This image, released by a militant website, purports to show the destruction of parts of Tadmur prison
The sprawling prison - once one of Syria's darkest secrets - is located a few miles east of Palmyra.
The extremists released photos that showed men carrying plastic containers apparently filled with explosives. A video showed parts of the prison in rubble.
Located about 250 kilometers northeast of Damascus, Tadmur Prison is part of a walled-off military complex that includes military and civilian units as well as an air base.
Former prisoners say it could hold up to 7,000 inmates, although the number fell in recent years.
By the time ISIS swept into Palmyra last month, the inmates had been moved elsewhere and the prison was empty.
Under President Bashar Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, the prison held mostly members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, pro-Saddam Hussein Baathists and loyalists of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The bloodiest incident in Tadmur's history came in June 1980, a day after members of the Muslim Brotherhood staged a failed assassination attempt against Hafez Assad.
In retaliation, troops belonging to Assad's brother Rifaat reportedly entered the prison and shot up to 1,000 prisoners who belonged to the Brotherhood.
The destruction of the sinister site brought mixed emotions from many Syrians who wanted it to remain standing so future generations would know its horrors.
'They destroyed our memories, our catastrophe and the walls that we leaned on and told our stories to,' said Ali Aboudehn, a Lebanese who spent four harrowing years in Tadmur. 'They destroyed the land that absorbed our blood because of torture.'
The sprawling prison was where the Assad regime carried out torture and executions of thousands of dissidents
It is thought ISIS destroyed the prison in an attempt to gain popularity among the local population
The blackened air control tower of nearby Tadmur military airbase is pictured after it was set on fire by the militants
Aboudehn, who heads the Committee of Lebanese in Syrian Prisons, regretted the destruction of Tadmur by the Islamic State militants.
'They demolished a historic symbol that should have stayed, because in every room there were people who were killed,' he said.
A 2001 report by Amnesty International titled 'Syria: Torture, Despair and Dehumanization in Tadmur Military Prison' catalogued routine abuses against prisoners, including the use of iron bars, whips and cables.
'Tadmur Prison appears to have been designed to inflict the maximum suffering, humiliation and fear on prisoners and to keep them under the strictest control by breaking their spirit,' it said.
Blowing up the facility may have been part of attempts by the extremists to gain popularity among those who suffered at the hands of the Syrian government. But residents and former prisoners called it a huge mistake.
Syrian opposition figure Radwan Ziadeh wrote on his Facebook page that Tadmur Prison 'should have been kept as a museum for future generations as evidence of degradation of human beings during the Assad rule.'
'Daesh [ISIS] turned it into rubble today.'
Militants also released this image of beds inside the Tadmur airbase, located next to the notorious prison
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