SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The U.N. children agency said fears were growing for hundreds of children in a Syrian prison seized by Islamic State (ISIS) inmates.
ISIS militants attacked Sina prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah on Thursday.
Around 850 children are caught up in the ceasefire as Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by U.S. troops attempt to storm the prison.
“Every day counts. It’s very hard to even imagine what atrocities these children are witnessing,” Reuters quoted Juliette Touma, UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa regional advocacy and communications head, as saying.
“The children’s lives are in immediate risk,” Touma added.
The U.S.-backed SDF group said the death tally stook at around 200 inmates and 27 of its fighters, according to Reuters.
More than 550 militants have surrendered, the group said. Clashes continued with militants still holed up in some buildings.
UNICEF called for the immediate end of fighting to allow safe passage for the 850 minors, some as young as 12, Reuters said.
The children were arrested during campaigns that finally drove the militant group from its last territorial enclave in Syria in 2019.
The jail is the largest among several publicly known ones where the SDF holds suspected militants and other detainees in what aids groups say are overcrowded and inhumane conditions.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says the SDF holds a total of about 12,000 men and boys suspected of Islamic State affiliation, including 2,000 to 4,000 foreigners from almost 50 countries.
