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Fighting between IS and Kurdish forces continues
Photo: - / AFP
At least 120 people died in days of fighting after an attack by the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) on a prison in northern Syria.
At least 77 IS members and 39 Kurdish security forces have been killed since Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.
Seven civilians were among the dead.
Fighting between IS and SDF security forces continued on Sunday for the fourth straight day.
Parts of the building are still controlled by the residents there, it is said.
US military has taken position around the prison
The US Department of Defense said it was supporting the Kurdish-dominated military alliance SDF with airstrikes.
Arab tribal officials who have been in contact with residents in the Hasakah area said US coalition forces took up positions around the prison and planes flew over the area.
The detainees are thousands of ISIS supporters and fighters who have been held in the prison in the city of Hasaka without charge for years. It is the largest prison that Kurdish troops have set up for the militants - about 5,000 people live in the former school building. The detainees hail from more than 50 nations, most of whom are unwilling to take back their nationals who left to fight in Syria. According to reports by the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, the living conditions in the IS prisons are "inhuman".
When the last IS stronghold in the Syrian city of Baghuz near the Iraqi border was captured in spring 2019, up to 80,000 supporters and fighters of the jihadist force surrendered.
To date, 12,000 of them are in prisons in Hasaka, Kobane and Qamishli, most of whom are men and only a small number are women and children.
Relatives of many inmates say they are young children and others arrested on flimsy charges or for resisting forced recruitment by the SDF, and accuse the Kurdish forces of racism.
The Syrian-Kurdish forces deny the allegations.
muk/Reuters/AFP