HASAKAH (Dispatches) –
Kurdish forces locked down a Syrian city Monday to trap Daesh terrorists who attacked a prison there five days earlier, leaving more than 150 dead in fierce battles.
The Kurdish-led so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) charged that the Daesh terrorists were using hundreds of minors as “human shields” inside the Ghwayran prison in the northeastern city of Hasakah.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF called for the protection of some 850 minors detained inside the jail, some as young as 12, warning that they could be “harmed or forcibly recruited” by the Daesh.
More than 100 Daesh terrorists late Thursday stormed Ghwayran prison using suicide truck bombs and heavy weapons, setting off days of clashes both inside the facility and in surrounding neighborhoods.
The fighting died down Sunday evening as the SDF consolidated control over areas around the jail and declared the entire city locked down for a week.
“To prevent terrorist cells from escaping... the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria announces a complete lockdown on areas inside and outside Hasakah city for a period of seven days starting on January 24,” the administration said.
Video showed the armed SDF personnel searching houses and stopping a suspected escaped inmate in the street on Sunday.
Video also showed warplanes flying over the prison from which the inmates were thought to have escaped.
On Saturday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby claimed that the U.S.-led occupation forces carried out airstrikes in support of the SDF. However, the Daesh terrorists took full control of the prison after the SDF and U.S.-led occupation forces failed to control the situation.
Arab tribal figures in touch with residents in the area said U.S.-led troops had taken over positions around the prison and planes were seen flying overhead.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since 2011, when the U.S. and its Western and regional allies began their overt attempts to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
In recent years, the U.S. has been maintaining an illegal military presence on Syrian soil, collaborating with militants against Syria’s legitimate government, and bombing the positions of the Syrian army and anti-terror popular forces.