Renewed clashes have erupted between the United States-backed PKK terrorist organization’s Syrian wing, the YPG, and Daesh militants near a Syrian prison where dozens of terrorists are still holed up, a war monitor said.
The Daesh assault on the sprawling Ghwayran prison complex near the northeastern city of Hasaakeh on Jan. 20 sparked days of heavy fighting that has left some 270 people dead. On Saturday, a bulldozer shoveled corpses onto a truck to take some for burial.
The YPG announced they had recaptured the prison on Wednesday, but that mop-up operations continued.
On Saturday, there were clashes in the vicinity of the prison between the YPG and Daesh militants who are hiding in the area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The war monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said that four Daesh terrorists took a local official and three civilians hostage for hours, holding them in a residential building near the prison.
Earlier, U.S. troops and YPG forces surrounded the building and deployed snipers on nearby rooftops, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent reported, adding that he heard intermittent shooting.
The YPG said Wednesday some 3,500 Daesh members had surrendered, but that holdout Daesh militants had barricaded themselves inside the prison complex.
Daesh in prison basement
The Daesh terrorists are in "cellars that are difficult to target with airstrikes or infiltrate," the Observatory said.
YPG officials estimated that between 60 and 90 Daesh militants were still in the basement and the ground floor above it.
Twenty of them surrendered on Saturday, the Observatory said, adding that the YPG killed another five in an exchange of fire inside the prison.
The YPG published a video showing several Daesh terrorists who surrendered on Friday.
On Saturday, an AFP correspondent saw a truck carrying away piles of bodies from the area near the prison believed to be those of Daesh militants.
A bulldozer dumped more bodies inside the truck, which then headed to an unknown location.
The YPG has banned journalists from freely accessing the Ghwayran neighborhood or approaching the prison since the start of the attack.
The fighting has killed at least 260 terrorists as well as seven civilians, the Observatory said, adding that the death toll is likely to increase.
The violence prompted 45,000 people to flee Hassakeh, the United Nations said. Many took refuge in relatives' homes, while hundreds more have been sleeping in the city's mosques and wedding halls.
It is also known that the YPG frequently uses the prisons and on occasion, frees Daesh militants. In late 2021, reports said that former Daesh terrorists were being released from prisons controlled by the YPG in the country's northeast in exchange for money under a "reconciliation" scheme.
The Guardian reported that prisoners jailed without trial can pay an $8,000 fine to be freed, citing interviews with two men who had been released and official documents.
Since the reconciliation scheme's implementation in 2019, it is unclear how many people have been able to buy their freedom in this way. The releases pose a significant security risk inside and outside Syria and raise the prospect that individuals who committed grave crimes will not face true justice.
The YPG commits rights violations under the guise of fighting the Daesh terrorist group without anyone holding them accountable. Local people living in areas held by the YPG have long suffered from its atrocities, as the terrorist group has a notorious record of human rights abuses in Syria, ranging from kidnappings, the recruitment of child soldiers, torture, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement.
The U.S. has primarily partnered with the YPG in northern Syria in the fight against the Daesh terrorist group. Turkey strongly opposes the YPG's presence in northern Syria, which has been a major sticking point in strained Ankara-Washington relations. The U.S. has provided military training and thousands of truckloads of weaponry to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns.