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HASAKEH, Syria — Kurdish forces on Wednesday retook full control of a prison in northeast Syria where Daesh group terrorists had been holed up since attacking it six days earlier.

The brazen Daesh jailbreak attempt and ensuing clashes left more than 180 dead in the jihadists' most high-profile military operation since the loss of their "caliphate" nearly three years ago.

Ghwayran prison in the city of Hasakeh held an estimated 3,500 IS inmates when the initial attack began on January 20 with explosives-laden vehicles steered by suicide bombers.

The Kurdish authorities have insisted no inmates escaped from the compound but the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group has said significant numbers got away.

"The entire prison is under our control... and inmates are being transferred to a safe place," said Nowruz Ahmed, a top official with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Speaking during a press conference, she said combing operations in the area were still under way, adding that a 9,000-strong Kurdish-led force had taken part in efforts to retake the facility.

With US and other foreign forces stepping in to support Kurdish elite units, the neighbourhood around the prison was secured and the besieged militants inside the prison started turning themselves in.

The SDF -- the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration's de-facto army - had said earlier Wednesday that around 1,000 IS inmates had surrendered.

The observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, confirmed that the attack was over, after nearly six full days that turned the largest city in northeast Syria into a war zone.

Mass surrender 

Thousands of Hasakeh residents were forced to leave their homes after at least 100 Daesh militants stormed the facility, in their biggest show of force in years.

In one mosque located at a safe distance from the chaos, hundreds of women and children were huddled together in the biting winter cold.

"We want to go back home," said Maya, a 38-year-old mother trying in vain to pacify her youngest child, adding that "there is no bread, water or sugar here".

Fighting in and around the prison since Thursday killed 181 people, including 124 Daesh terrorists, 50 Kurdish fighters and seven civilians, according to the observatory.

That death toll could rise, however, as Kurdish forces and medical services gain access to all parts of the prison following the end of the attack.

A stand-off gripped the prison for days, with Kurdish forces and their Daesh foes aware they faced either a bloodbath or talks to end the fighting.

There were fears for more than 700 boys who were among those held in the facility.

Kurdish forces had cut off food and water to the jail for two days to pressure holdout terrorists to give themselves up, the observatory said.

The SDF has been reluctant to refer to talks between them and Daesh fighters, and it remains unclear exactly what led to the end of the attack.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said a Syrian Daesh terrorist had negotiated with Kurdish forces to end the stand-off and secure medical care for wounded terrorists.

Since Monday, Kurdish forces had freed at least 32 prison staff, some of whom appeared in video footage that Daesh had shared on social media after launching the attack.

'International problem' 

Ghwayran is the prison with the largest number of suspected Daesh members in Syria, and many, from Kurdish officials to Western observers, have warned the jailbreak should serve as a wake-up call.

Kurdish authorities say more than 50 nationalities are represented in Kurdish-run prisons holding more than 12,000 Daesh suspects.

"This is a global problem that requires many nations to come together to develop an enduring long-term solution," the US-led coalition said in a statement following Wednesday's announcement.

"The makeshift prisons throughout Syria are a breeding ground" for Daesh, the coalition added, calling for thorough investigations into the circumstances behind the attack.

The Kurdish administration has long warned it does not have the capacity to hold, let alone put on trial, all the Daesh fighters captured in years of operations.

"We cannot face it alone," the administration's top foreign policy official, Abdulkarim Omar, told AFP on Wednesday.

He called on the international community to "support the autonomous administration to improve security and humanitarian conditions for inmates in detention centres and for those in overcrowded camps".

The self-declared Daesh caliphate, established in 2014 once straddled large parts of Iraq and Syria.

After five years of military operations conducted by local and international forces, its last rump was eventually flushed out on the banks of the Euphrates in eastern Syria in March 2019.


KHARTOUM — Thousands of Sudanese pro-military protesters rallied on Wednesday against a UN bid to resolve a political crisis in the country three months after a coup, an AFP correspondent reported.

The demonstrators gathered outside the Khartoum office of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan, or UNITAMS, which launched talks with Sudanese factions this month.

They held up banners that read, "Down, down UN", and others that urged United Nations special representative Volker Perthes to "Go back home".

"We don't want external intervention in our country," protester Hamed Al Bashir told AFP outside the UN office.

On January 10, Perthes said the consultations aimed "to support the Sudanese to reach an agreement on a way out of the current crisis". But he added that "the UN is not coming up with any project, draft or vision for a solution".

On Wednesday, UNITAMS said protesters had gathered outside the mission's office "demanding to expel the mission".

"We defend freedom of assembly & expression and offered to receive a delegation in our premises which they refused," it said on Twitter.

Sudan has been rocked by a deadly crackdown against protests calling for civilian rule since an October 25 military coup led by General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan

The country's latest military takeover derailed a power-sharing transition between the army and civilians that had been painstakingly negotiated after the 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar Al Bashir.

'Reverse the coup' 

The ruling Sovereign Council -- formed by Burhan after the coup with himself as chairman -- has welcomed the UN-led dialogue, as have the United States, Britain, neighbouring Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The Forces for Freedom and Change, Sudan's main civilian bloc, has also said it would join consultations "to restore the democratic transition".

In a Wednesday press conference, FFC leader Omar Al Degeir called on the international community to stand by "the Sudanese people to achieve its demands to reverse the coup".

Stephanie Khoury, UNITAMS director of political affairs, said earlier: "Our role at this stage of consultations for a political process for #Sudan is to hear Sudanese stakeholders; ensure we actively listen to their views, document their visions & suggestions."

An 18-year-old protester died on Wednesday after suffering a bullet wound to the head during protests last month, according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors.

His death brought the number of people killed in the crackdown on anti-coup demonstrations to 77, including others who were also shot in the head, it said.

Sudan's authorities have repeatedly denied using live ammunition against demonstrators, and insist scores of security personnel have been wounded during the protests.

A police general was stabbed to death during the unrest this month.

In the city of Wad Madani, south of Khartoum, sport clubs said they had suspended all activities until further notice "in tribute to the martyrs killed". Shops and stores were also largely shuttered and streets were empty, according to witnesses.

On Monday a protester in Wad Madani was among three in the country gunned down by security forces during a protest for civilian rule, the Doctors' Committee said.

HASAKEH, Syria — US-backed Kurdish forces tightened the noose around armed extremists hunkering down inside a Syrian prison Tuesday, with both sides facing a bloodbath or talks to end the five-day-old standoff.

Around 100 Daesh terror group fighters attacked Ghwayran prison in the northeastern city of Hasakeh on January 20, in their biggest military operation since their "caliphate" was defeated in 2019.

The ensuing clashes with the Kurdish forces running northeastern Syria have left more than 160 people dead, including 45 in Kurdish ranks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Some of the estimated 3,500 Daesh prisoners inside the facility have already been bused out to other detention centres in recent hours but it was unclear how many remained holed up inside Ghwayran.

Some of the hundreds of minors detained in the prison were transferred on Monday, the observatory said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish administration's de-facto army, have not confirmed reports that several prison guards were being held by Daesh fighters.

The SDF said that 250 Daesh detainees had surrendered on Tuesday, bringing the total number of surrendered extremists to 550.

Inmates split 

SDF forces operating with air support from the US-led coalition present in the region have deployed elite units and armoured vehicles in and around the converted school that became one of the world’s largest Daesh prisons.

An assault has looked imminent since early on Monday but the observatory said Kurdish forces were reluctant to move in due to the presence of hostages inside.

The SDF is counting on the besieged extremist fighters running out of ammunition and supplies, Abdel Rahman said.

He said talks were taking place for some of the Kurdish troops and prison staff trapped inside to be freed in exchange for medical treatment for wounded extremist fighters.

The Observatory put the number of hostages held inside the prison at 27, while the whereabouts of at least another 40 people were unknown.

Abdel Rahman said that while foreign Daesh members were thought to oppose a negotiated settlement, many of the Syrians among the inmates favoured swap talks.

As bodies were still being retrieved from the scene of the battle and after sporadic clashes overnight, the death toll for the spectacular jailbreak attempt rose to 166.

The observatory said 114 of the dead were affiliated with Daesh, while seven were civilians caught in the crossfire.

The United Nations said up to 45,000 Hasakeh residents were forced to leave their homes as the fighting raged and Kurdish forces locked down large parts of the city.

Most of the inmates in Ghwayran were captured by US-backed forces in late 2018 and early 2019, during the dying days of the extremist group’s self-proclaimed caliphate.

‘Wakeup call’ 

The Save The Children charity said it received audio messages from one Australian teenager who was brought to Syria at the age of 11 by his parents and called for help from inside the prison.

“There’s no doctors here that can help me,” he can be heard saying, after explaining he suffered injuries to his head and his hand during the fighting.

“I’m very scared, there’s a lot of people dead in front of me,” he also said in the recording, the authenticity of which AFP could not independently verify.

The proto-state declared by Daesh in 2014 once straddled large parts of Iraq and Syria.

After five years of military operations conducted by local and international forces, its last rump was eventually flushed out on the banks of the Euphrates in eastern Syria in March 2019.

An estimated 12,000 suspected Daesh members are still held in Kurdish prisons nearly three years on.

“Last week’s prison break is just the most recent reminder that the SDF lacks the manpower and resources to function as prison guards for the foreseeable future,” the Soufan Center said in a brief published Tuesday.

“The assault should serve as a wakeup call for countries to repatriate their citizens, even while still determining the preferred procedures for rehabilitating or prosecuting these individuals,” it said.

SHABWA, Yemen — Yemen's Houthi insurgents were expelled from a key battleground district by UAE-trained Giants Brigade fighters, the militia said Tuesday, a day after the insurgents' latest missile attack on Abu Dhabi.

The Iran-backed Houthis lost Harib district, south of Marib, the government's last northern stronghold which they have been fighting to seize for months.

The Giants Brigade said "hundreds were killed and wounded on both sides" in battles that lasted for more than two weeks and also secured the neighbouring governorate of Shabwa. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis.

“We thank the Arab coalition for their support for our operations in Shabwa, which were crowned with complete success,” the Giants Brigade said in a statement, referring to a Saudi-led military alliance.

The clashes are part of a major escalation in the seven-year war after the Houthis, following a series of territorial defeats, launched a deadly drone-and-missile attack on the UAE last week.

The Saudi-led pro-government coalition that includes the UAE hit back with a series of air strikes, one of which killed at least three children and plunged Yemen into a four-day Internet outage.

Internet services were restored early on Tuesday, a web monitor and AFP correspondents said.

In rebel-held Saada last Friday, an attack on a prison left at least 70 people dead and wounded more than 100, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

The coalition denied being behind the prison attack, which the Houthis said had killed 91 people and injured more than 200, as they lined up the bodies covered in white sheets along the ground on Tuesday.

On Monday, the rebels renewed their attack on Abu Dhabi when two ballistic missiles were intercepted over the city, scattering debris.

US forces based at the capital’s Al Dhafra air base fired Patriot missiles to help repel the attack, while some of them also scrambled to bunkers, US officials said.

‘Troubling escalation’ 

The UAE, which pulled most of its troops out of Yemen in 2019 but maintains support and training for pro-government forces, warned of a “thorough and comprehensive response” to the cross-border attack.

“The UAE reserves the right to respond against these terrorist attacks and such blatant criminal escalation,” a foreign ministry statement said, adding that the Houthis had targeted “civilian areas”.

Two people were injured in southern Saudi Arabia by further rebel missile attacks on Monday.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price called the Houthi attacks and coalition air strikes “a troubling escalation”.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also met with the UAE and Saudi ambassadors to Washington to “discuss ongoing Houthi attacks against civilian targets that have resulted in civilian casualties in both countries”, the White House said Monday.

Arms sales from the United States, as well as Britain and France, back the Saudi-led coalition.

Rights groups have long criticised the coalition for civilian casualties in its aerial bombardments.

According to the Yemen Data Project, an independent tracker, there have been almost 9,000 civilian casualties from coalition air raids since 2015.

The rebels warned of further attacks on the UAE after their latest missile strike was repelled. Three foreign oil workers died in their initial salvo on January 17.

Latest developments have sent regional tensions soaring and further complicated the Yemen conflict that is being fought on several fronts.

More than 150,000 people have been directly killed by fighting and millions displaced in the impoverished country, according to the United Nations which calls it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

NAIROBI — The United Nations on Tuesday said 32 people, including women and children, had been killed during armed raids in a region of South Sudan plagued by interethnic violence.

The deadly attacks on two villages in the troubled Jonglei State on January 23 sent civilians fleeing as armed youths from a rival ethnic group opened fire and torched property.

Among the dead were three children who drowned in a river while trying to escape, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said.

At least 26 people were wounded, including women and children, and others remain remained unaccounted for two days after the bloodshed in the Baidit locality.

“UNMISS strongly condemns any attack on civilians and urges groups and individuals to take immediate action to avoid further escalations that will endanger vulnerable people,” it said.

“The Mission further calls on authorities to carry out timely investigations and that the perpetrators be held accountable.”

The peacekeeping mission was deployed for a year in 2011 when South Sudan gained independence, but its mandate has been extended again and again as the young country suffered through civil war and high levels of ethnic violence.

More than 700 people were killed and others raped and kidnapped in Jonglei between January and August 2020 in armed raids by ethnic militias in the eastern state.

A UN investigation found political and military elites played a role in the violence in which militias razed villages in coordinated attacks on their rivals, using machetes, machine guns and sometimes rocket-propelled grenades.

The UN’s special envoy to South Sudan, Nicholas Haysom, told the Security Council in December that the number of civilian casualties from local violence across the country had roughly halved in 2021 compared to the previous year.

But instability remains pervasive, and a post-war coalition government has failed to stop armed violence or punish those responsible nearly two years after taking power in Juba.

President Salva Kiir and his deputy and historic foe, Riek Machar, formed a power-sharing government in 2020 after years of bloodshed between their forces left nearly 400,000 people dead.

But the government is weak and trust in short supply, and the UN has warned that the peace agreement is at risk of collapse if key pillars of the accords remain unfulfilled.

HASAKEH, Syria — Kurdish forces geared up on Monday for an assault on a prison in northeast Syria that the Daesh terror group fighters stormed last week, sparking fears over the fate of hundreds of under-age detainees.

Daesh fighters on Thursday rammed two explosives-packed vehicles into the Kurdish-run Ghwayran Prison to launch a brazen jailbreak operation that has plunged the city of Hasakeh into chaos.

The attack, the group’s biggest since their once sprawling proto-state was defeated in 2019, has already killed more than 150 people, including more than 100 among extremist ranks.

Fighting drove hundreds of residents of Syria’s largest Kurdish city to flee, but the violence receded on Monday, with the presence of hundreds of children inside the prison complicating an assault.

The Britain-based group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said elite Kurdish forces had moved armoured vehicles inside the main prison yard, ahead of a possible attempt to storm the facility.

Daesh fighters were holed up in one building on the northern side of the prison after “dozens of jihadists surrendered to Kurdish forces” in recent hours, according to the war monitoring group.

Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said several Daesh members had handed themselves over following an SDF raid inside the jail.

An AFP correspondent in the area saw buses and military vehicles transferring what appeared to be Daesh fighters out of the prison.

The autonomous Kurdish authorities running the region imposed a state of emergency across Hasakeh, after at least seven civilians were caught in the crossfire and killed.

According to rights groups and the United Nations, more than 700 minors are thought be held in Ghwayran, a former school converted into a detention facility that is badly overcrowded, housing at least 3,500 suspected Daesh members.

“These children are effectively trapped in Ghwayran prison,” said Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher at the group Human Rights Watch  (HRW).

HRW heard voice messages from an injured minor at Ghwayran who reported “there are dead bodies everywhere”, Kayyali said.

“It’s not clear if they have any kind of medical assistance,” Kayyali added, explaining that most of the minors were aged between 12 and 18.

Another group, Save the Children, said it had also received audio testimony indicating that “there have already been multiple child deaths and casualties”.

It said the minors in Ghwayran are from dozens of foreign countries, as well as Syria and Iraq.

The SDF, the autonomous Kurdish authorities’ de facto army, charged IS attackers were using children as human shields to prevent an assault.

The extremist group “continues to hold children hostage and is using them as human shields to protect themselves”, the SDF said in statement.

Eva Hinds, spokeswoman for UN childrens’ agency UNICEF, said the plight of the trapped minors, around 10 per cent of whom are believed to be 15 or younger, was a source of “grave concern”.

“The SDF initially allocated a special section for children,” Hinds said. “Many of them have adult relatives inside and have since joined them in other sections.”

The US forces based in the region, who were the main support in the Kurdish offensives that put thousands of extremists into custody three years ago, were heavily deployed in Hasakeh.

US-led coalition helicopters were flying overhead as a full curfew was enforced across the city, an AFP correspondent reported.

“If Daesh is using these children as human shields, and the SDF and the US-led coalition are trying to retake the prison, then the children are at incredible risk from both sides,” Kayyali said.

According to the observatory war monitor, at least 154 people were killed since the attack was launched late on January 20.

Among them were 102 extremists, 45 members of the Kurdish security forces and seven civilians, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The attack on one of the biggest prisons in the region was seen by analysts as a sign that Daesh needs manpower to continue rebuilding following the demise of its “caliphate”.

While it is unclear how successful Daesh will have been at springing fighters from Ghwayran, the operation marks a new step in the extremist organisation’s resurgence.

But observers also argued that while Daesh has trumpeted the attack on its propaganda channels and that it might provide a morale boost for Daesh sympathisers, it would do little to change the military balance on the ground.

BEIRUT — Former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri announced on Monday he would not run in upcoming parliamentary elections and was withdrawing from political life.

The announcement could jeopardise the crisis-hit country’s ballot altogether and marks the end of an era that saw the Hariri family dominate Lebanese Sunni politics since the end of the civil war in 1990.

The 51-year-old three-time premier, who was propelled into politics by his father Rafic’s assassination in 2005, announced his decision during a press conference in the capital Beirut.

The Sunni Muslim leader said he was “suspending his work in political life” and urged fellow members of his Future Party to also leave the political arena.

A tearful Hariri, who was first elected to parliament in 2005, declared he would not run in the legislative polls due in May.

“I am convinced there is no room for any positive opportunity for Lebanon due to Iranian influence, international upheaval, national division, sectarianism, and the collapse of the state,” he said.

Iran backs Hizbollah, a Shiite movement that wields considerable influence in Lebanese politics and which Hariri blames for his father’s killing.

Hariri is also a citizen of Saudi Arabia, where he was born in 1970.

His political fortunes took a turn for the worse when the regional powerhouse that had traditionally backed his father and his Future movement withdrew its support in 2017.

Lebanon is grappling with an economic crisis that has seen the currency lose more than 90 per cent of its value on the black market.

Food prices have skyrocketed and around 80 per cent of the population now live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.

Potential donors have repeatedly said any restoration of aid is dependent on the establishment of a viable government committed to rooting out corruption.

‘Sunni boycott’ 

Hariri’s withdrawal from the electoral process could cast doubt over the upcoming vote, seen as a key step in meeting the demands of the international community.

“I see this is as the makings of a Sunni boycott of the upcoming Lebanese parliamentary elections, which will most likely be postponed,” said Maha Yahya, an analyst with the Carnegie Middle East Centre.

“This move will fuel sectarian tensions, and rally the Sunni partisans,” she said.

In Lebanon’s post-war power-sharing system, the prime minister should be a Sunni Muslim, the speaker a Shiite and the president a Maronite Christian.

Hariri first became prime minister in 2009, forming a unity government with Hizbollah and its allies after marathon negotiations.

The Tehran-backed group abruptly withdrew its ministers in 2011 and the government collapsed, after which Hariri stayed in self-imposed exile in France and Saudi Arabia.

He returned to back a successful 2016 presidential bid by Michel Aoun, a Christian ally of Hizbollah, and formed a new unity government.

He resigned in 2019, days after the eruption of an unprecedented popular uprising demanding an end to corruption and the wholesale removal of the ruling political elite.

Hariri was designated again in October 2020 to form a technocratic government but he failed to broker a Cabinet deal and eventually threw in the towel.

His announcement had been anticipated for days but his speech sparked angry reactions among some of his supporters, who torched tyres and blocked streets in some of the capital’s Sunni strongholds.