Since its defeat in 2019, the Islamic State group has regularly carried out deadly attacks, especially in the vast Syrian desert. On Thursday, Daesh (the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group) launched an assault on a prison controlled by Kurdish forces in the city of Hassakeh in northeastern Syria. An unknown number of jihadists have regained their freedom, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), dominated by Kurdish fighters and spearheading the fight against ISIS, supported by the international coalition, defeated ISIS in 2019 in its last stronghold of Baghouz in the province of Deir Ezzor, in eastern Syria. They confirmed today the assault on the Ghwayran prison in Hassaké, where French nationals are believed to be.
According to the OSDH, a car bomb exploded at the entrance to the prison and a second explosion occurred nearby before IS jihadists attacked the Kurdish security forces guarding the prison establishment head-on. . “A number of prisoners managed to escape,” said the NGO, without specifying their number.
“Jihadists have emerged from the surrounding neighborhoods”
Ghwayran is one of the largest detention centers housing Daesh fighters in Syria, a country at war since 2011, said OSDH director Rami Abdel Rahmane. “An escape attempt by Daesh terrorists detained in Hassaké prison took place after an explosion and the detonation of a car bomb,” the SDF said in a statement.
“ISIS sleeper cell members sprung up from surrounding neighborhoods and clashed with Kurdish” security forces, they continued. The FDS sent reinforcements to the prison and blocked the area, the OSDH said.
Planes of the international anti-jihadist coalition led by the United States flew over the area and dropped flares in the vicinity of the prison, according to the OSDH. France will send the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier and its carrier battle group to the eastern Mediterranean in early February to support the coalition.