Kurdish-led SDF says Syrian prison retaken after IS assault

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces say a prison overrun by the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria is now fully under its control, thwarting a dangerous plot by the extremists to launch further, multiple attacks across the volatile region.

The US-backed SDF says more than 120 of their fighters and prison workers died in the 10-day standoff at the Gweiran prison, also known as al-Sinaa prison, in Hassakeh, which houses at least 3,000 Islamic State group detainees. Some 374 IS militants, including the initial attackers, were also killed, it added.

At a press conference, SDF commander Nowruz Ahmad says the IS prison attack aimed at liberating a number of terrorist detainees, but also was part of a broader plot that IS had been preparing for a long time.

According to seized documents and confessions of some of the attackers, the extremist group had planned attacks on other neighborhoods in Hassakeh, the town of Shaddada and areas of Deir el-Zour in eastern Syria. Also planned were simultaneous attacks on the al-Hol camp, which houses thousands of families of IS members.

“They (IS) wanted to launch a massive attack on the region, and once again to spread their terror and impose darkness on the people of the region and revive the terrorist organization once again,” Ahmad says.

In Washington, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price commends the SDF for their effective response to the prison attack.

IS’s “desperate and violent tactics are a grave reminder to the world that the terrorist group remains a threat that can and must be defeated,” he says in a statement.