Kurdish forces in northeast Syria are hunting down Islamic State (IS) fighters on Friday (January 21st) the day after an attack on a Kurdish-controlled prison housing jihadists, Kurdish forces said and NGOs.

In the attack on Ghwayran prison, one of the largest housing jihadists in Syria, IS detonated a car bomb near the facility, and fighters attacked Kurdish forces managing the prison. establishment to release some ISIS members, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and an NGO said.

The attack sparked clashes between the SDF and IS jihadists near the prison.

The fighting continued on Friday amid tighter security measures, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.

The US-led coalition fighting ISIS said "the SDF suffered casualties during the attack", without specifying the number of casualties.

According to the OSDH, 18 members of the Kurdish security forces, including prison guards, were killed in the attack, while at least 16 jihadists died "inside and near the prison".

Believing that it was the most important attack since the jihadist group was defeated in 2019 in Syria where it had been driven out of its last stronghold in the east, the NGO indicates that "five prisoners of the 'ISIS managed to escape.

The FDS, which manages the prison, said on Friday that they had "arrested two IS fighters who tried to escape", as part of search operations carried out the day after the attack.

With AFP

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