US-backed forces say ISIS has been defeated at Syrian prison

Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are backed by the United States, announced on Wednesday that they had retaken a prison from ISIS.

“Update — The Peoples’ Hammer Operation has culminated with our entire control of the al-Sina’a prison in al-Hasaka and the surrendering of all Daesh terrorists,” Farhad Shami, a spokesperson for the SDF, tweeted on Wednesday, including a photo of what appeared to be a slew of prisoners lining up near the complex.

Shami also shared a video that appeared to show the surrender of the prisoners from the complex following the SDF’s defeat of ISIS at the prison. The Washington Post noted that the facility looked to be Ghwaryan prison, located in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah.

“In thorough raids targeted dormitories where the terrorists were barricaded, our forces forced other batches of Daesh terrorists mutineers and attackers to surrender themselves, half an hour ago, in al-Sina’a prison,” Shami tweeted.

The defeat of ISIS at the prison happened nearly a week after ISIS fighters detonated a car bomb, the Post noted. SDF officials said that, assuming that the ISIS fighters were there to liberate them, some inmates overpowered prison guards while others rioted.

The New York Times noted that an updated casualty count was not available Wednesday.

But the newspaper reported hundreds of ISIS fighters were involved in the attack, and the six days of fighting culminated in the death of hundreds of ISIS fighters, including some prisoners and attackers, and around 30 SDF members. 

Officials noted that the Hasakah prison held about 3,000 ISIS members, according to the Post.