US-backed Syria-based Kurdish forces, once abandoned by the Trump administration, wrested control of a prison that had been assaulted by ISIS, a group Donald Trump claimed to have defeated, the Associated Press reports.
More than 3,000 prisoners and fighters have surrendered at the prison in the last two days as coalition forces made their way bloc-by-bloc through the Gweiran prison complex, which houses 3,000 prisoners and about 600 minor detainees. Since they attacked the complex Thursday, IS and prisoners have used the children held in the prison as shields against attack.
“The whole prison is now under control,” said Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. “The operation today was on the cells of the child detainees. We were able to surround a number of terrorists who had taken them as shields and we killed them.”
Officials say around 35 soldiers and law enforcement officers were killed in the nearly week-long battle to retake the prison complex. And unknown number of terrorists and prisoners were also killed.
US and coalition forces used air assets to attack the prison, allowing officials to take control of various sections over the past four days. The attack on the prison was coordinated with an attack on Iraqi forces in Diyala province early Friday morning in which 11 soldiers were killed in their barracks.