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The fighting took place on Saturday in ISIL (ISIS) and Kurdish forces In Syria, members of an armed group have been killed by more than 70 people after being attacked by a prisoner in prison.
The attack on Ghwayran prison in the northern city of Hasakeh is one of ISIL’s most significant since its “caliphate” was defeated in Syria almost three years ago.
“At least 28 members of the Kurdish security forces, five civilians and 45 members of the IS, have been killed,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, the warlord at the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
ISIL on Thursday attacked about 3,500 suspected members of the anti-prison armed group, including some of their leaders, the Syrian Observatory reported.
The attackers “seized the weapons they found” at the detention center and released several fighters, the monitor said, and relies on sources inside the war-torn Syria for information.
Hundreds of prisoners have since been recovered, but dozens remain free.
With the support of US-led coalition planes, Kurdish security forces surrounded the prison and were fighting to regain full control of the surrounding neighborhoods, which the armed group used as a launching pad for the attacks.
The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Saturday that it was pursuing “security operations in the city of Hasakeh and the perimeter of Ghwayran prison” with the help of coalition allies and Kurdish internal security forces.
The clashes took place mainly in the northern suburbs of Ghwayran, where he carried out attacks and “killed several people in the IS.” [ISIL] the fighters attacked the prison. ”
The armed group said in a statement on its Amaq website on Friday that the attack on the prison was aimed at “freeing the prisoners”.
‘Fat goal’
ISIL has regularly carried out attacks against Kurds and government targets in Syria since they overthrew the prototype that was once deployed in March 2019.
Most of the rebel attacks have been against military targets in remote areas and oil installations, but the Hasakeh prison breach may mark a new phase in the group’s resurgence.
It was not immediately clear whether the prison attack was part of a coordinated operation to unite with one attack on a military base in neighboring Iraq – or the action of a local ISIL cell.
Analyst Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute in Washington said the armed group had targeted the prison to bolster its numbers.
“[ISIL] it wants to go beyond the terrorist and criminal network that it has become, and for that it needs more fighters, ”he told AFP.
“Prison breaches represent the best way for ISIS to regain arms strength, and Ghwayrang Prison is a nice target for ISIS because it is flooded.”
Colin Clarke, director of research at the Soufan Center think-tank in New York, said the chances of repeating the attack remain real.
“The SDF needs a comprehensive strategy to address this threat,” he said.
12,000 ISIL suspects
Kurdish authorities have long warned that ISIL has been unable to sustain, let alone prosecute, the thousands of fighters trapped in years of operations by ISIL.
According to Kurdish authorities, more than 50 nationalities are represented in Kurdish-run prisons, where more than ISIL suspects are currently being held.
Many of the ISIL prisoners ’countries of origin have no desire to repatriate for fear of a public backlash at home.
Abdulkarim Omar, the foreign policy chief of the semi-autonomous administration, has accused ISIL of attacking the prison “for failing the international community to assume its responsibilities”.
The Syrian war began in 2011 and has since killed about half a million and displaced tens of millions.
Its elders have said support for ISIL has grown with the Kurdish-led local government’s anti-Kurdish kingdom, accusing it of discriminating against the ruling Arab majority, and many of them are refusing a policy of coercive coercion.
The Kurdish-led group denies allegations of ill-treatment of local Arabs and says it wants to resolve old complaints against them as a minority in decades of Arab nationalism.
ISIL controlled parts of Syria and Iraq in 2017-19 until rivals, a U.S.-led coalition, the SDF and Iraqi security forces ousted them from the territory. ISIL cells continue to carry out attacks in both countries.
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