Deadly fighting between ISIS, Kurd forces in Syria

The attack has claimed more than 70 lives. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

BEIRUT (AFP) - Fighting raged for a third day on Saturday (Jan 22) between the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group and Kurdish forces in Syria after ISIS attacked a prison housing militants.

The attack has claimed more than 70 lives, a monitor said.

The assault on the Ghwayran prison in the northern city of Hasakeh is one of ISIS' 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 Mr Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, using an alternate acronym for ISIS.

On Thursday night ISIS launched the attack against the prison housing some 3,500 suspected members of the terror group, including some of its leaders, said the Observatory.

The terrorists "seized weapons they found" in the detention centre and freed several fellow ISIS fighters, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources inside war-torn Syria for its information.

Hundreds of extremist inmates have since been recaptured, but dozens are still believed to be on the loose, the Observatory said.

With the backing of United States-led coalition aircraft, Kurdish security forces have encircled the prison and are battling to retake full control of surrounding neighbourhoods, which extremists have used as a launching pad for their attacks.

The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Saturday said it was continuing "operations to keep security in Hasakeh city and the perimeter of the Ghwayran prison", with the help of coalition allies and Kurdish internal security forces.

It said Saturday's clashes centred mostly on neighbourhoods north of Ghwayran, where it carried out raids and "killed a number of IS fighters that had attacked the jail".

The Islamist group said in a statement released on Friday by its Amaq news agency that its attack on the jail aimed to "free the prisoners".

Fighting raged for a third day on Saturday (Jan 22) between the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group and Kurdish forces in Syria. PHOTO: REUTERS

'Fat target'

ISIS 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.

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 neighbouring Iraq - or the action of a local ISIS cell.

Analyst Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute in Washington said the extremist group targeted the prison to bolster its numbers.

The ISIS group "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 it's overcrowded," he said.

The prospect of a repeat of the attack remains very real, said Dr Colin Clarke, research director at the New York-based Soufan Centre 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 ISIS fighters captured in years of operations.

According to the Kurdish authorities, more than 50 nationalities are represented in a number of Kurdish-run prisons, where more than 12,000 ISIS suspects are now held.

Many of the ISIS prisoners' countries of origins have been reluctant to repatriate them, fearing a public backlash at home.

The semi-autonomous administration's top foreign policy official Abdulkarim Omar blamed the ISIS 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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