BAGHDAD (AP) – More than 100 militants from the Daesh terrorist group carried out a complex attack on Syria’s largest prison holding militants, officials said Friday, as members of the group in Iraq stormed an army barracks, killing 11 soldiers as they slept.
The prison break in Syria is believed to be the largest since the terrorists lost the final sliver of territory they held nearly three years ago. In recent months, Daesh sleeper cells have become more active in both countries, claiming attacks that killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians.
In Iraq, Daesh gunmen attacked an army barracks in a mountainous area north of Baghdad early Friday, killing 11 soldiers as they slept, the Iraqi military and security officials said.
The officials said the attack occurred in the al-Azim district, an open area north of the city of Baqouba in Diyala province. The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear, but two officials who spoke to The Associated Press said Daesh terrorists broke into the barracks at 3 a.m. local time and shot dead the soldiers, before fleeing.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to issue official statements. An Iraqi military statement said the dead included an officer with the rank of lieutenant and 10 soldiers.
The brazen attack more than 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, was one of the deadliest targeting the Iraqi military in recent months.
Prison breaks are a hallmark of militant attacks. Daesh terrorists launched multiple prison breaks during their surge in 2014 before swarming territory in Iraq and Syria.
In Syria, more than 100 Daesh terrorists using heavy machine guns and vehicles rigged with explosives attacked the Gweiran Prison in the northeastern city of Hassakeh where some 3,000 suspected terrorists are being held, according to a spokesman for the Kurdish-led so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, Farhad Shami. He said seven Kurdish fighters were killed and several others were wounded. At least 23 Daesh attackers were also among the dead, he said.