Issue day:
Six members of Kurdish-led security forces and two jihadists were killed on Monday in a failed attack by the Islamic State group near a prison for extremists in northern Syria.
Failed attack hits Kurdish security compound rakkain the former de facto capital of the conglomerate SyriaThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, including a military intelligence prison for jihadists.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based monitor, said “jihadist military intelligence was targeting the prison” which houses hundreds of jihadists, including 200 high-level militants.
He said the intelligence gathered by the group “indicates serious preparations by (IS) cells.”
Kurdish-led authorities have declared a state of emergency in Raqqa and sealed off the city as security forces hunt for the jihadists.
Is claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that two of its fighters had launched it, one of whom survived.
The group said the attack came in revenge for “Muslim prisoners” and female relatives of jihadists living in the Kurdish-administered al-Hol camp.
Al-Hol, home to more than 50,000 people, is the largest camp for displaced people who fled after fighting with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) annexed the last scraps of its Syrian territory in 2019. fighters of the IS group were removed from
The hunt for the culprits continues
A spokesman for the SDF, which controls Raqqa and al-Hol, confirmed the deaths of six security forces to AFP.
He said units of the Internal Security Force were on the lookout for the rest of the attackers.
Siamand Ali, a spokeswoman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told The Associated Press that a group of five people believed to be part of an IS sleeper cell, two of them wearing explosive belts, stormed Raqqa’s internal security checkpoints. and attacked the guard post. security forces.
Farhad Shami said the attack took place near a prison with IS prisoners, but “IS failed to attack the prison because our forces repelled their attack”.
It is the most significant jihadist attack on a prison since IS fighters launched their biggest assault in years in January, when they stormed the Ghewran prison in the Kurdish-controlled town of Hasakeh.
The attack, which lasted a week, killed hundreds and was aimed at freeing fellow jihadists.
Syria’s war, which began in 2011, has killed nearly half a million people and caused the largest conflict-induced displacement since World War II.
(AFP, FRANCE 24 with AP)