A conflict has been raging for days between the Kurdish forces defending northern Syria and Islamic State jihadists. Several civilians are also among the dead.
In Syria, serious new clashes between jihadists and Kurdish forces have so far claimed more than 150 lives, and thousands of people have been displaced due to the ongoing violence surrounding Gweiran prison in Al-Hasakah, north-eastern Syria.
The conflict broke out last Thursday, 20 January, when a group of around a hundred jihadists stormed the prison guarded by the Kurdish army where 3,500 Islamic State (Isis) fighters are held, detonating an explosive device and enabling hundreds of prisoners to escape.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (Sohr) — a UK-based organisation that has been documenting human rights abuses in Syria since 2006 — 102 jihadists, 45 Kurdish fighters and at least seven civilians were killed over four days. The attack by the terrorists is the most serious act claimed since 2019, when the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (Sdf), backed by the US-led international anti-jihadist coalition, forced Isis to withdraw from northern Syria.
The jihadists are nonetheless continuing to spread terror among the civilian population, entering homes and killing indiscriminately. Kurdish forces are attempting to retake control of the prison and neutralise the terrorists' efforts to reorganise. The international press has also reported air strikes carried out by the international coalition.
Meanwhile, the United Nations children's organisation Unicef has stated that it is concerned about nearly 850 children detained in the prison during the fighting, who are being used as human shields by radical Islamist fighters. The children are held alongside thousands of Isis fighters: some were forcibly recruited and trained to carry out suicide attacks.
The attackers claimed to have seized weapons and freed hundreds of jihadists. More than 100 escapees have, however, been captured by Kurdish forces. Several dozen remain at large, the Sohr said. More broadly, thousands of Isis fighters are held in detention centres in northern Syrian territory under Kurdish authority. Many prisons were originally schools and are therefore not suited to holding long-term detainees.
For years, the Kurdish authorities have therefore been calling for the repatriation of around 12,000 jihadists of more than 50 nationalities — European and otherwise — held in their prisons. Despite their defeat in 2019, Isis is still able to carry out attacks of this kind. As such, the detainees effectively represent sleeper cells.
The civil war in Syria was triggered in March 2011 by the government of Bashar Al-Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations. Over the years the conflict has grown more complex, drawing in regional and international powers and enabling the rise of jihadist fundamentalists. So far around 500,000 people have lost their lives, while millions of Syrians have fled their homes and much of the country's infrastructure has been devastated, as have numerous populated centres.
Since 2013, Syrian Kurds have been engaged in defending northern cities from Isis attacks and reclaiming territories that fell into jihadist hands. To this day, the presence of the Kurds — who in recent years have fought as the only ground force within a US-led international coalition — remains invaluable in preventing a possible return of the Islamic State.
