ISIL fighters flee jail as Syrian army clashes with Kurdish-led SDF

Syrian army tells Al Jazeera Arabic it is now in complete control of city of al-Shaddadi in northeast Syria.

The Syrian army has announced a curfew in the city of al-Shaddadi in the country’s northeast after the escape of ISIL (ISIS) fighters from the city’s prison amid clashes with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to the state news agency, SANA.

The Syrian army told Al Jazeera Arabic on Monday that it was now in complete control of the city and the prison housing suspected ISIL detainees as its troops searched al-Shaddadi and its surrounding areas for the escaped fighters.

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The Syrian Operations Authority also told SANA that control of the al-Aqtan prison and security facilities in the city northeast of Raqqa would be assumed by the Ministry of Interior following the operation, and claimed that the SDF had deliberately released ISIL members.

The army did not say how many fighters had been released from the prison.

The SDF said in a statement that it had lost control of the prison after an attack by the army, a claim that the military has denied.

The Kurdish-led force also said nine of its members were killed and 20 others wounded in fighting around al-Aqtan.

The statement added that the United States-led coalition against ISIL had not intervened despite repeated calls to a nearby coalition base.

The curfew comes a day after the Syrian government announced that the SDF had agreed to withdraw from parts of Syria during a ceasefire deal, in the most significant change in favour of President Ahmed al-Sharaa after the toppling of former President Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

The SDF agreed on Sunday to withdraw from both Raqqa and Deir Az Zor, the location of Syria’s main oil fields and two Arab-majority provinces they had controlled for years.

SDF chief commander Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani) was set to be in Damascus on Monday to discuss the ceasefire deal.

The province of Hasakah, where al-Shaddadi is located, largely remains under SDF control, with its central prisons also holding detainees accused of being linked to ISIL, and a camp holding thousands of ISIL-linked prisoners.

ISIL was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries.