Not less than 550 suspected ISIL fighters have surrendered as US-backed SDF forces wrestle again management of the jail facility in Syria’s Hasakah.
Kurdish-led forces in Syria have stated one other 250 ISIL (ISIS) fighters have surrendered because the United States-backed forces try and clear the final a part of a jail seized by the armed group final week.
Not less than 300 ISIL members handed themselves in on Monday because the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commandos moved into the ability within the northeastern metropolis of Hasakah.
Clashes continued on Wednesday because the SDF tightened its siege on the jail. Dozens are nonetheless regarded as holed up inside, together with guards held as hostages and a number of other hundred kids.
Greater than 160 folks had been killed in battles between the SDF and the ISIL fighters after the armed group attacked the Kurdish-run Ghwayran jail on Thursday.
The deceased included 114 suspected ISIL fighters and 45 SDF personnel, in accordance with the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It was the largest assault by ISIL in Syria because the fall of its so-called caliphate in 2019.
In the meantime, fears have grown for about 850 kids caught within the crossfire within the Syrian jail, the United Nations kids’s company UNICEF stated on Tuesday.
The youngsters had been detained throughout US-backed campaigns that drove ISIL from its final territorial enclave in Syria in 2019.
Human Rights Watch and different rights teams have lengthy criticised the Kurdish-led forces that management massive swaths of northeast Syria for holding kids in overcrowded, makeshift prisons in inhumane circumstances.
Earlier than the assault, Human Rights Watch estimated the SDF held on the jail about 12,000 males and boys suspected of ISIL affiliation, together with 2,000 to 4,000 foreigners from about 50 international locations.