Syria: Kurdish-led forces on Thursday found dozens of militants holed up in a Syrian prison during mop-up operations after recapturing the facility from Islamic State group fighters.
An IS assault on the sprawling Ghwayran prison complex near the city of Hasakeh on January 20 sparked six days of fighting, in violence that claimed at least 235 lives.
It was the most high-profile attack launched by the militants since the loss of their “caliphate” nearly three years ago.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said they had retaken full control of Ghwayran prison on Wednesday, ending battles that turned northeastern Syria’s largest city into a war zone.
But search operations the next day found around 60-90 militants still holed up in one wing of the prison, the SDF said, adding that 3,500 IS members had so far surrendered to its troops.
“Our forces have made a call for safe surrender… and in case they did not surrender, we will deal with them firmly,” said a statement from the SDF, the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration’s de-facto army.
Sporadic clashes broke out again Thursday in the vicinity of the prison compound during the Kurdish mop-up operations, killing at least 12 militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The bodies of five others were found inside the prison, added the Britain-based war monitor.
Hasakeh entered it’s fourth day in lockdown with US-backed Kurdish forces blocking all entrances to the city to keep fleeing militants from crossing into other areas.
Around 45,000 people had fled their homes in Hasakeh to escape the violence, according to the United Nations, with many taking shelter in mosques or wedding halls inside the city.
On Thursday, families gathered at a checkpoint erected at the entrance to the neighbourhood of Ghwayran, pleading with security forces to let them through, an AFP correspondent reported.
“We came to check on our house,” said Abu Hamza, who was waiting in the biting cold with his five children.
“But they turned us away because the situation is not good.”
Nearby, two women carrying plastic bags packed with bread were also hoping to gain access to the neighbourhood where they said trapped civilians had been left without basic supplies for days.
“People have been left without bread, without water, without anything,” one of the women told AFP.
“We came, and risked our lives to buy bread for the neighbourhood and we will distribute it,” she said.
The Observatory said Kurdish forces combing areas inside the prison were proceeding with “great caution over fears of suicide bombers or landmines laid by the IS group”.
It said 173 IS militants, 55 Kurdish fighters and seven civilians had been killed since the start of the assault.
“The fate of dozens of other people is still unknown,” said the Observatory.
Around 120 SDF Kurdish fighters and members of the security forces were wounded and taken to hospital, “some in serious condition” it added.
The Kurdish authorities have insisted no inmates escaped from the compound but the Observatory, which relies on sources on the ground, has said significant numbers got away.
In New York, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths called for children trapped in the prison to be evacuated.
“We are extremely concerned about the hundreds of children trapped in a terrifying prison siege,” he told the Security Council.