Eighteen members of the Kurdish security forces were killed in the attack, which sparked ongoing fighting inside and near the detention center.
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The assault was launched at night. Intense fighting pitted Kurdish forces against fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group on Friday, January 21 in northeastern Syria. The latter launched a deadly attack against the large prison of Ghwayran located in Hassaké, from which jihadist detainees escaped. This detention center houses some 3,500 suspected IS members, including leaders of the group, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
Eighteen members of the Kurdish security forces were killed during this attack, according to the OSDH, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria. The NGO also reported that at least 16 IS members were killed in the fighting.
“A number of prisoners managed to escape”, added theOSDH, without specifying their number, believing that it was the most important attack since the IS was defeated in 2019 in Syria when it was driven out of its last stronghold in the East.
The IS operation wreaked havoc in Hassakeh, causing power cuts and forcing some people to flee the neighborhood. IS fighters entrenched themselves in houses near the prison, sometimes using residents as human shields, as Kurdish forces fought to regain full control of the neighborhood and hunted down freed prisoners.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), dominated by Kurdish fighters, said it arrested 89 prisoners who tried to flee following the attack. IS militants stationed in a neighborhood near the prison “fired heavily in an attempt to restore hope to inmates inside the prison”, adds the press release from the FDS.