Hours after the Islamic State militants knocked down doors and dug holes in walls between cells in a prison in Syria, Kurdish-led forces put down the riots, a Syrian Kurdish spokesman said.
A spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the situation in the prison in the northeastern city of Hassakeh was “fully under control.” He said their anti-terrorism force “ended the riots and secured the facility and all prisoners inside.”
It was not immediately clear if the riots were triggered by concerns over the spread of the new Coronavirus.
There are concerns over an outbreak of the virus inside overcrowded prison facilities in Syria and elsewhere in the region. But so far there are no reports of infection in Kurdish-administered northeastern Syria or in any detention facilities.
Kurdish authorities run more than two dozen detention facilities, scattered around northeastern Syria, holding about 10,000 IS fighters. Among the detainees are some 2,000 foreigners, including about 800 Europeans.
The Kurdish-led forces, backed by the U.S-led coalition, declared a military victory against IS in March last year, after seizing control of the last sliver of land the militants had controlled in southeast Syria.
North Press Agency, a media platform operating in the Kurdish-administered areas, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Monday that the local police force, known as Asayesh, had detained four IS members who were able to flee the night before
The prison is believed to house foreign IS militants. It is not clear what nationalities were held there.
