Kurdish security forces announced on Monday (December 26th) that they had foiled an attack by the Islamic State group targeting their headquarters and a prison housing jihadists in the city of Raqqa, in northern Syria.

Six people died among the security forces. 

A jihadist who was wearing an explosive belt was killed and another apprehended by Kurdish forces, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, Kurdish-dominated) spokesman Farhad Cham told AFP. 

According to him, the SDF were "able to push back" the jihadists who targeted a Kurdish security forces compound in the city of Raqqa, former "capital" of the Islamic State group, and could not reach a prison there. . 

About 900 jihadists

According to the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), an NGO with a vast network of sources in Syria, Rami Abdel Rahman, "the objective of the jihadists was the prison of military security , in which there are some 900 jihadists, including about 200 high-level ".

In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying two of its fighters carried it out, one of whom was able to escape.

The group said the assault was aimed at "revenging Muslim prisoners", including female jihadists in the Kurdish-administered Al-Hol camp in northern Syria.

This dilapidated and overcrowded camp is home to more than 50,000 relatives of jihadists, including foreigners from around 60 countries, as well as displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees.

Following this attack, the Kurdish Autonomous Administration announced in a press release a state of emergency in Raqqa and proclaimed a curfew "until further notice" in the city.

In January 2022, dozens of jihadists stormed Ghwayran prison in northeastern Syria to free their brothers in arms.

After several days of fighting and hundreds of deaths, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) regained control of the prison.

After a meteoric rise in power in 2014 in Iraq and neighboring Syria and the conquest of vast territories, the Islamic State group saw its self-proclaimed "caliphate" crumble under the blow of successive offensives.

He was defeated in 2017 in Iraq and in 2019 in Syria.

But the extremist group responsible for multiple abuses continues to carry out attacks through sleeper cells in both countries.

With AFP

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