(Hassaké) The assault by Islamic State (IS) jihadists on a prison in northeastern Syria and the fighting between them and Kurdish forces left 373 dead, according to a new report established Sunday evening by the Observatory Syrian Human Rights (OSDH).
Posted at 2:35 p.m.
This NGO, with a vast network of sources in Syria, had given a previous assessment of 332 dead in the fighting between Kurds and jihadists since the January 20 assault on Ghwayran prison in Hassaké.
A new report from the OSDH now reports 373 dead, including 268 jihadists, 98 members of the Kurdish forces and seven civilians.
This increase is due to the discovery of new corpses – of Kurds, but also of jihadists – during search operations in the prison buildings and the neighborhoods near the establishment, according to the OSDH.
“The assessment is provisional, because there are dozens of mutilated corpses that could not be identified,” said Rami Abdel Rahmane, director of the OSDH.
The NGO believes that the toll is likely to increase further, as many Kurdish fighters were seriously injured during these fights.
Earlier in the day, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the end of search operations in the attacked prison of Ghwayran.
Spearheading the fight against jihadists in Syria, the FDS declared on Wednesday that they had regained control of the prison, after six days of intense fighting. But sporadic fighting then pitted them against IS jihadists, both inside and outside the establishment.
According to the OSDH, twenty jihadists surrendered overnight from Saturday to Sunday, and five others died in fighting within the prison.
The FDS are investigating the circumstances of the IS attack, assured the OSDH. “Dozens of IS detainees managed to escape […] in the first hours of the attack,” said the NGO.