IS deadly ambush in Syria prison, dozens dead

Baghdad: The Islamic State group unleashed its biggest attack in Syria since the fall of its “caliphate” three years ago. More than 100 militants assaulted the main prison holding suspected extremists, sparking a battle with U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters that continued 24 hours later and left dozens dead on Friday. Across the border in Iraq, gunmen stormed an army barracks north of Baghdad before dawn Friday while soldiers inside slept, killing 11 before escaping — the deadliest attack in months on Iraq’s military.

The bold assaults suggest militants have been revitalized after maintaining a low- level insurgency in Iraq and Syria over the past few years. The group’s territorial control in Iraq and Syria was crushed by a years-long U.S.-backed campaign, but its fighters continued with sleeper cells that have increasingly killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians in past months.

The attack in Syria targeted Gweiran Prison in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, the largest of around a dozen facilities run by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces holding suspected IS fighters. Gweiran holds some 5,000, including IS commanders and figures considered among the most dangerous, according to Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. The forces’ commander, Mazloum Abadi, said IS mobilized “most of its sleeper cells” to organize the jailbreak. The militants, armed with heavy machine guns and vehicles rigged with explosives, attacked Thursday evening, aiming to free their comrades, Shami said.

The fighting started with a large explosion around 7 p.m., followed by two more blasts later, said one resident whose home overlooks the area. The assault was complex. Prisoners inside the facility rioted and tried to break out simultaneously as a car bomb went off outside and gunmen clashed with security forces, Shami said. A car bomb hit a nearby petroleum depot, sparking a fire that still burned Friday. On Friday, Kurdish forces were trying to retake the northern part of the prison, where inmates remained in control and attempted a second escape.

The SDF was also attacking in the nearby Zuhour neighborhood, where IS fighters were holed up. Fighting there was intense and movement slow because the militants have boobytrapped houses with explosives and were using civilians as human shields, Shami said. Coalition helicopters and other aircraft carried out strikes during the battle, including in Zuhour and on the prison, he said. “Since yesterday, helicopters are always in the sky,” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety. Civilians were fleeing Zuhour, and shops were closed across Hassakeh as security forces fanned out, he said.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday the U.S. used airstrikes to support the SDF in the prison break attack. “We have provided some airstrikes to support them as they deal with this particular prison break,” Kirby said, adding that the U.S. recognizes that the IS threat is not gone, and “we remain focused on that.” Shami said that the SDF had cordoned off the area and so far recaptured 104 militants who escaped from the prison. But he said the total number who had broken out was not determined. He said seven Kurdish fighters and at least 28 IS attackers were killed in the battle. A Syrian opposition war monitor reported a higher death toll, 67. —AP