SOHR: Over 70 Dead in Fighting after Syria Jail Attack

A monitor reported fighting between ISIS and Kurdish forces in Syria raged for a third day Saturday after the terrorist group raided a prison harbouring extremists, claiming over 70 casualties.

Since ISIS's "caliphate" was proclaimed vanquished in Syria nearly three years ago, the assault on the Ghwayran jail in the northern city of Hasakeh has been one of its most crucial.

According to Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, "at least 28 members of the Kurdish security forces, five civilians, and 45 members of ISIS had been murdered" in the conflict.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), ISIS launched the attack on the prison containing 3,500 alleged members of the terrorist group, including some of its leaders, on Thursday night.

Hundreds of extremist convicts have been imprisoned since then, with roughly ten suspected to have escaped, according to the Observatory, a Britain-based monitor that gets its information from sources inside Syria's war-torn country.

"The extraordinary situation in and around the prison continues," said Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

He claimed that the violence on Saturday morning took place north of the facility.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on the jail in a statement issued by its Amaq news agency.

Since the remains of ISIS's once-sprawling proto-state was overwhelmed on the banks of the Euphrates in March 2019, it has carried out frequent strikes against Kurdish and government targets in Syria.

The Hasakeh jail release could signify a new chapter in the group's rebirth, as most of their guerrilla strikes have been targeting military targets and oil sites in isolated places.

The Kurdish authorities have long cautioned that they lack the capability to retain, much less prosecute, the thousands of ISIS fighters seized over the course of years of operations.

More than 50 nationalities are represented in a handful of Kurdish-run jails, according to Kurdish authorities, where more than 12,000 ISIS suspects are currently imprisoned.

Syria's civil war began in 2011, killing almost half a million people and causing the world's greatest conflict-induced displacement since World War II.