More than 70 dead in fighting after Syria jail attack

BSS :
Fighting raged for a third day on Saturday between the Islamic State group and Kurdish forces in Syria after IS attacked a prison housing jiha 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 IS’s most significant since its “caliphate” was declared defeated in Syria nearly three years ago.
“At least 28 members of the Kurdish security forces, five civilians and 45 members of IS have been killed” in the violence, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
IS launched the attack on Thursday night against the prison housing some 3,500 suspected members of the jihadist group, including some of its leaders, said the Observatory.
Hundreds of jihadist inmates had since been detained and around 10 were believed to have escaped, said the Observatory, a Britain-based monitor that relies on sources inside war-torn Syria for its information.
“The exceptional situation continues in and around the prison,” said Farhad
Shami, spokesman for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The fighting on Saturday morning was taking place north of the prison, he
added.
The militant group said that in a statement released by its Amaq news agency that its attack on the jail aimed to “free the prisoners”. IS has carried out regular attacks against Kurdish and government targets in Syria since the rump of its once-sprawling proto-state was overrun on the banks of the Euphrates 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.