HASAKEH, Syria — Fighting raged for a third day
Saturday between
Daesh and
Kurdish forces in Syria after Daesh attacked a
prison housing extremists, with the violence killing nearly 90, a monitor said.
اضافة اعلان
The assault on the Ghwayran prison in the northern city of
Hasakeh is one of Daesh’s most significant since its so-called
"caliphate" was declared defeated in Syria nearly three years ago.
"At least 28 members of the Kurdish security forces,
five civilians and 56 members of (Daesh) have been killed" in the
violence, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights.
Daesh launched the attack on Thursday night against the
prison housing at least 3,500 suspected members of the terror group, including
some of its leaders, said the observatory.
The extremists "seized weapons they found" in the
detention center and freed several fellow Daesh fighters, said the
Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources inside war-torn Syria for its
information.
Hundreds of terrorist inmates had since been recaptured but
dozens were still believed to be on the loose, the observatory said.
With the backing of US-led coalition aircraft, Kurdish
security forces have encircled the prison and are battling to retake full
control of surrounding neighborhoods, which extremists have used as a launching
pad for their attacks.
The Kurdish-dominated
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on
Saturday said "fierce clashes" broke out in neighborhoods north of
Ghwayran, where it carried out raids and killed more than 20 IS fighters.
It said it seized explosive belts, weapons and artillery
held by terrorists.
'Fat target'
The battles have triggered a civilian exodus from
neighborhoods around Ghwayran, with families fleeing for a third consecutive
day in the harsh winter cold as Kurdish forces closed in on Daesh targets.
"Thousands have left their homes near the prison,
fleeing to nearby areas where their relatives live," Sheikhmous Ahmed, an
official in the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration, told AFP.
Daesh has carried out regular attacks against Kurdish and
government targets in Syria since the rump of its once-sprawling proto-state
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.
Daesh said in a statement released on Friday by its Amaq
news agency that its attack on the jail aimed to "free the
prisoners".
It was not immediately clear 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.
Analyst Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute in
Washington said the terrorist group targeted the prison to bolster its numbers.
Daesh "wants to move beyond being the terrorist and
criminal network that it has devolved into, and to do that it needs more
fighters," he told AFP.
"Prison breaks represent the best opportunity for ISIS
to regain its strength in arms, and Ghwayran prison is a nice fat target for
ISIS because its overcrowded," he said, using another acronym for Daesh.
'Comprehensive strategy'
The prospect of a repeat of the attack remains very real,
said Colin Clarke, research director at the New York-based Soufan Center think
tank.
"The SDF needs a comprehensive strategy to deal with
this threat," he said.
The Kurdish authorities have long warned they do not have
the capacity to hold, let alone put on trial, the thousands of Daesh fighters
captured in years of operations.
According to Kurdish authorities, more than 50 nationalities
are represented in a number of Kurdish-run prisons, where more than 12,000
Daesh suspects are now held.
Many of the Daesh prisoners' countries of origins have been
reluctant to repatriate them, fearing a public backlash at home.
Abdulkarim Omar, the semi-autonomous administration's top
foreign policy official, blamed the prison attack on the "international
community's failure to shoulder its responsibilities".
The war in Syria broke out in 2011 and has since killed
close to half a million people and spurred the largest conflict-induced
displacement since World War II.
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