BEIRUT, Jan 22, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Fighting raged for a third day Saturday

between the Islamic State group and Kurdish forces in Syria after IS attacked
a prison housing jihadists, in violence that has claimed over 70 lives, a
monitor said.

  The assault on the Ghwayran prison in the northern city of Hasakeh is one
of IS's most significant since its "caliphate" was declared defeated in Syria
nearly three years ago.

  "At least 28 members of the Kurdish security forces, five civilians and 45
members of IS have been killed" in the violence, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head
of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

  IS launched the attack on Thursday night against the prison housing some
3,500 suspected members of the jihadist group, including some of its leaders,
said the Observatory.

  Hundreds of jihadist inmates had since been detained and around 10 were
believed to have escaped, said the Observatory, a Britain-based monitor that
relies on sources inside war-torn Syria for its information.

  "The exceptional situation continues in and around the prison," said Farhad
Shami, spokesman for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

  The fighting on Saturday morning was taking place north of the prison, he
added.

  The jihadist group said in a statement released by its Amaq news agency
that its attack on the jail aimed to "free the prisoners".

  IS has carried out regular attacks against Kurdish and government targets
in Syria since the rump of its once-sprawling proto-state was overrun on the
banks of the Euphrates in March 2019.

  Most of their guerrilla attacks have been against military targets and oil
installations in remote areas, but the Hasakeh prison break could mark a new
phase in the group's resurgence.

  The Kurdish authorities have long warned they do not have the capacity to
hold, let alone put on trial, the thousands of IS fighters captured in years
of operations.

  According to Kurdish authorities, more than 50 nationalities are
represented in a number of Kurdish-run prisons, where more than 12,000 IS
suspects are now held. The war in Syria broke out in 2011 and has since
killed close to half a million people and spurred the largest conflict-
induced displacement since World War II.