IS gunmen mount deadly attacks in Syria, Iraq; Dozens killed
The Islamic State group launched
sophisticated attacks in Syria and Iraq, including an attempt to break into a
prison where suspected extremists are being held by U.S.-backed fighters,
officials said Friday. Dozens of detainees in Syria and 11 Iraqi troops were
killed.
The separate attacks are believed to be some
of the largest since IS lost the final sliver of territory it held nearly three
years ago. In recent months, IS sleeper cells have become more active in both
countries, claiming attacks that have killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians.
In Iraq, IS gunmen attacked an army barracks
in a mountainous area north of Baghdad early Friday, killing 11 soldiers as
they slept, the Iraqi military and security officials said.
The officials said the attack occurred in the
Al-Azim district, an open area north of the city of Baqouba in Diyala province.
The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear, but two officials
who spoke to The Associated Press said IS militants broke into the barracks at
3 a.m. local time and shot dead the soldiers, before fleeing.
In Syria, more than 100 IS fighters using
heavy machine guns and vehicles rigged with explosives attacked the Gweiran
Prison in the northeastern city of Hassakeh where some 3,000 suspected IS
militants are being held, according to a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian
Democratic Forces, Farhad Shami. He said seven U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters
were killed and several others were wounded. At least 23 IS attackers were also
among the dead, he said.
"This is the biggest attack not only in
Syria but also in Iraq and the region," Shami said in reference to attacks
carried out by IS since they were defeated in Syria in March 2019. "The
prisoners include commanders and are among the most dangerous."
The complex attack was mounted on Thursday
evening and aimed to free fighters from the group incarcerated there.
Kurdish-led forces who control the Gweiran Prison said prisoners inside the
facility rioted simultaneously and tried to escape while a car bomb went off
outside the prison and gunmen clashed with security forces.
The fighters were led by foreign militants,
not Syrians, many of whom spoke in Iraqi dialect, Shami said.
The SDF said more than 100 militants who
escaped were arrested. Another group of inmates staged a new escape attempt
Friday, the SDF added.
Shami said IS gunmen now controlled several
homes in the nearby neighborhood of Zuhour adding that the extremists have
rigged several homes with explosives and are using civilians as human shields.
"We are being cautious so that civilians
are not harmed," Shami told The Associated Press.
The US-led coalition carried out an airstrike
after reported casualties among the Syrian-led Kurdish forces late Thursday.
Shami said dozens of IS fighters had gathered
earlier in a nearby neighborhood and prepared for the attack.
A Syrian opposition war monitor had a higher
death toll, saying a total of 67 people were killed.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights reported at least 23 Kurdish security forces and prison guards
were killed in the clashes, alongside 39 militants and five civilians. It
described the attack as the most violent one committed by IS since its
territorial defeat in 2019. The Observatory said the inmates are mostly in
control of the prison, while Kurdish forces attempt to wrestle it back.
IS was largely defeated in Iraq in 2017, and
in Syria in 2019, although it remains active through sleeper cells in many
areas. Militants from the Sunni Muslim extremist group still conduct
operations, often targeting security forces, power stations and other
infrastructure.
In October, IS militants armed with machine
guns raided a predominantly Shiite village in Iraq's Diyala province, killing
11 civilians and wounding several others. Officials at the time said the attack
occurred after the militants had kidnapped villagers and their demands for
ransom were not met.
The officials said army reinforcements were
sent to the village where Friday's attack occurred, and security forces
deployed in surrounding areas. More details were not immediately available.
"We affirm that the blood of the heroic
martyrs will not be in vain and that the response by our heroic army units will
be very harsh," the Iraqi military statement said.
IS attacks have been on the rise in recent
months in both Iraq and neighboring Syria, where in 2014 the group set up a
self-styled Islamic caliphate before being defeated by an international coalition.
The so-called caliphate covered significant
swathes of Iraq and Syria. The ensuing war against them lasted several years,
killed thousands, and left large parts of the two neighboring countries in
ruins. It also left U.S.-allied Kurdish authorities in control of eastern and
northeastern Syria, with a small presence of several hundred American forces
still deployed there.
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