Isis gunmen launch major attacks in Iraq and Syria

Attack on prison called worst since 2019, when Isis was officially declared defeated

A photo provided by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces shows arrested Isis fighters after they attacked Gweiran Prison (AP)

Isis gunmen launched two brazen attacks in Syria and Iraq, killing more than a dozen members of the security forces and highlighting the growing struggle to stamp out the group years after the defeat of its self-declared caliphate.

Just before dawn in Iraq, Isis fighters reportedly broke into an army barracks located in a mountainous region 75 miles north of Baghdad, killing nearly a dozen soldiers including a lieutenant, as they slept.

Iraqi officials told The Associated Press it was the deadliest raid in recent months. The army has sent reinforcements to the surrounding areas.

Meanwhile in Syria, Kurdish officials said militants mounted a complex attack to free prisoners from inside Gweiran Prison in Hassakeh, home to some 3,000 inmates, killing at least five members of the security forces. Footage reportedly taken outside the prison and shared online showed intense bursts of heavy automatic weapon fire and smoke billowing from several locations.

Farhad Shami, a spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told The Independent that the prisoners had first rioted and tried to escape late Thursday, while gunmen from a nearby district attacked from the outside.  There were also reports a car bomb was set off.

Mr Shami said it was the largest attack on an Isis prison in northeast Syria since  2019, when the group was officially declared defeated.

The SDF, which is an arm of the Syrian Kurdish-ked administrative authority in charge of Syria’s northeast, said 89 suspected militants who initially escaped were arrested and 23 were killed. But fighting continued after a separate group of inmates staged a fresh escape attempt Friday afternoon.

The US-led coalition, which coordinates with the SDF, reportedly carried out an airstrike in the area.

The Rojava Information Centre, a local monitoring group in northeast Syria, reported that five Isis fighters managed to successfully escape the prison. They remain at large.

Isis attacks have been on the rise in recent months in both countries, where Isis once held thousands of kilometres of territory in a self-proclaimed caliphate which was established in 2014 and defeated by an international coalition five years later.

Since then, the group has operated via sleeper cells and guerilla forces, staging regular attacks on civilians and members of the security forces.