BEIRUT (AFP) – Fighting raged for a third day Saturday between the Daesh terrorist group and Kurdish forces in Syria after Daesh terrorists attacked a prison housing militants, in violence that has claimed over 70 lives, a monitor said.
The assault on the Ghwayran prison in the northern city of Hasakeh is one of Daesh’s most significant since it was defeated in Syria nearly three years ago.
“At least 28 members of the Kurdish security forces, five civilians and 45 members of Daesh have been killed” in the violence, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Daesh launched the attack on Thursday night against the prison housing some 3,500 suspected members of the terrorist group, including some of its leaders, said the Observatory.
The terrorists “seized weapons they found” in the detention center, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria for its information.
Hundreds of militant inmates had since been recaptured but dozens were still believed to be on the loose, the Observatory said.
The prison was surrounded by Kurdish forces with the support of the international coalition, it added.
“Fighting is taking place on the northern side of the prison,” Farhad Shami, spokesman for the Kurdish-dominated so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said, calling the situation “exceptional”.
The terrorist group said in a statement released on Friday by its Amaq news agency that its attack on the jail aimed to “free the prisoners”.
Daesh has carried out regular attacks against Kurdish and government targets in Syria since the rump of it was overrun in March 2019.
Most of their guerrilla attacks have been against military targets and oil installations in remote areas, but the Hasakeh prison break could mark a new phase in the group’s resurgence.
It was not immediately clear Friday whether the prison break was part of a centrally coordinated operation -- timed to coincide with an attack on a military base in neighboring Iraq -- or the action of a local Daesh cell.