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SDF fighter at a checkpoint in the Syrian city of Al-Hassaka on Tuesday
Photo:
Hogir Al Abdo / dpa
After days of fighting in the Syrian city of Al-Hassaka, the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) attacked a prison.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by Kurdish militias, declared the fighting over on Wednesday after almost a week after the last of the IS fighters surrendered.
Since the attack began, 181 people have been killed, including 124 jihadists, 50 Kurdish militia supporters and seven civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
There is no verifiable information from the combat zone.
Most recently, the jihadists had entrenched themselves in the northern part of the prison.
The raid on the prison, which began on Thursday evening, was one of the heaviest IS attacks in Syria in years.
The aim was to free imprisoned supporters.
It is unclear exactly how many detainees escaped.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that around 200 detainees are still at large.
According to Kurdish media, around 5,000 IS supporters were most recently in the prison there.
The fight was also complicated by hundreds of children in prison who were threatened by the fighting.
45,000 people fleeing
After the fighting broke out, up to 45,000 people fled their homes to other parts of the city, according to the UN emergency relief agency OCHA.
The UN has expressed concern for the safety of civilians in the area.
US troops supported the fight against the extremists with airstrikes.
Helicopters circled over neighborhoods near the prison where IS fighters were holed up.
In the summer of 2014, the IS took over large areas in the north and west of Iraq and proclaimed a so-called caliphate there.
Large parts of neighboring Syria also belonged to the dominion.
sol/dpa
