Up to 2,000 Islamic State inmates who had overrun a Syrian prison have surrendered to their Kurdish captors, ending a six-day siege that marked the terror group’s most dramatic stand since the collapse of its so-called caliphate nearly three years ago.
The peaceful finale to the standoff on Wednesday was at odds with its bloody beginnings when up to 100 extremists tried to storm the facility in the northern city of Hasakah and free those jailed inside. The raid on Thursday night, which was led by two suicide bombers, led to days of intense clashes, which claimed the lives of close to 40 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces and about 30 jihadists, and forced more than 50,000 civilians to flee.
