U.S.-backed forces recapture prison

Child detainees, who militants used as shields, set free

U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces said they wrestled control of the last section of a prison seized by Islamic State militants and freed a number of child detainees they had used as human shields. That ended a deadly, weeklong assault by the extremists on one of the largest detention facilities in Syria.

The attack was the biggest by ISIS since the fall of the group’s “caliphate” in 2019 and came as the militants staged deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq that stoked fears they may be staging a comeback.

In the week of clashes, dozens from both sides have been killed, the U.S.-led coalition has carried out nearly a dozen airstrikes and thousands of civilians living nearby have been displaced.

“The whole prison is now under control,” said Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. “The operation today was on the cells of the child detainees. We were able to surround a number of terrorists who had taken them as shields and we killed them.”

Shami said the force was then able to enter the cells and the remaining militants surrendered. A large number of children were freed, he said, but had no specific number.

Shami said about 3,000 inmates have surrendered since the operation closing in on the northern wing began two days ago. He said the preliminary death toll among his force is estimated at 35.

The militants had used child detainees as human shields slowing down the effort to retake the facility located in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, Kurdish officials said.

The al-Sinaa or Gweiran prison complex houses more than 3,000 inmates, including some 600 minors. Children have reportedly been killed and wounded in clashes, rights and aid groups say.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 124 ISIS militants, 50 fighters with the Kurdish-led forces and seven civilians were killed in the weeklong attack that extended outside the walls of the prison into residential areas.

The assault began Thursday just hours before another brazen attack on military troops in neighbouring Iraq. Together, they signalled a new spike in violence by emboldened militants who had for months been carrying out low-level assaults, largely on security patrols, checkpoints and other mobile targets.