At least 18 guards, including members of the PKK terrorist group's Syrian branch, the YPG, were killed Thursday in a Daesh attack on a prison housing thousands of suspected terrorists in northeastern Syria, a war monitor said Friday. Also, it was reported that at least 16 Daesh fighters were killed in the ongoing clashes sparked by the attack on the YPG-run prison.
The number of those killed among security forces and prison guards stands at 18, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), calling it the largest such attack since the Daesh proto-state was declared to be defeated in 2019.
The rare attack on Ghwayran prison in Hassakeh province on Thursday saw Daesh members detonate a car bomb near the jail and attack YPG forces guarding the facility in an attempt to free some of the group's members.
The SOHR said five Daesh prisoners managed to break out, but it remains unclear whether they have since been killed or recaptured.
The United States-led coalition battling Daesh said "SDF casualties ensued during the attack," referring to its Syria partner YPG.
The assault triggered clashes between the Daesh members and United States-backed YPG forces around the prison that continued into Friday amid heightened security measures, the Observatory said.
Clashes are ongoing in the area, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"At least six IS fighters have been killed in the clashes," Abdel Rahman initially said, using another acronym for Daesh.
The YPG, which oversees the jail, said on Friday that it "arrested two IS fighters that tried to escape from the Ghwayran prison" as part of combing operations following the attack.
The extremists were captured in the vicinity of the jail, it said.
It said Daesh fighters that carried out the attack were hiding in civilian homes in the neighborhood of al-Zuhoor near the jail.
"Exceptional security measures in the vicinity of the prison and surrounding neighborhoods are ongoing," it said in a statement on Friday morning.
Daesh fighters "are using civilians in the al-Zuhoor neighborhood and areas north of the prison as human shields," it said, adding that Daesh had killed some civilians in the area.
"Our forces and the relevant security services are moving with great precision and sensitivity to contain these incidents."
Ghwayran is one of the largest facilities housing Daesh fighters in a semi-autonomous region controlled by YPG terrorists in northeast Syria.
More than 50 nationalities are represented in a number of YPG-run prisons where more than 12,000 Daesh suspects are now held.
From France to Tunisia, many of the Daesh prisoners' countries of origins have been reluctant to repatriate them, fearing a public backlash at home.
Daesh "remains an existential threat in Syria and cannot be allowed to regenerate," the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement after Thursday's attack.
"Coalition forces will continue to defend against and deter hostile activities against ourselves and our partners."
The Daesh terrorist group's self-declared caliphate, established in 2014, once stretched across vast parts of Syria and Iraq and administered millions of inhabitants.
A long and deadly military counter-offensive led by Syrian and Iraqi forces with backing from the United States and other powers eventually defeated the proto-state in March 2019.
The remnants of Daesh mostly went back to their desert hideouts from which they continue to attack the Syrian regime and allied forces.
Earlier this month, Daesh fighters shot dead an aid worker at the al-Hol camp for displaced people.
Last week, a Daesh attack near Syria's border with Iraq killed five Syrian pro-regime fighters and wounded 14 others, according to the Observatory.