As many as seven members of the Islamic State group managed to escape from a small prison in northeast Syria on Sunday. However, four were recaptured by security forces while a search is going on for the remaining three.
Syrian state media SANA and an official with the main Kurdish-led U.S.-backed force in the region said the militants fled from a jail on the edge of the town of Al-Hol, home to a sprawling camp where tens of thousands of IS wives, widows and children live.
More than two dozen detention facilities scattered across northeastern Syria are operated by Kurdish authorities. They hold about 10,000 IS fighters, of which some 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them, including about 800 Europeans.
Spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces Mervan Qamishlo said the SDF had caught four escaped inmates and were conducting search operations to find the others. He did not give the nationalities of the militants.
These captured IS members rioted and took control of a prison in the northeastern Syrian of Hassakeh for several hours earlier this month. They were calmed down by Kurdish-led authorities after negotiation.
Similar riot had taken place in the same prison in Hassakeh in late March, which allowed four extremists to escape, although they were caught a day later.
These extremists have intensified their attacks in Syria and Iraq in recent weeks as both countries grapple with coronavirus.
