Kurdish militia retakes Syrian prison from ISIS A Kurdish-led militia that had been fighting Islamic State members for control of a Syrian prison regained full control on Wednesday. The Kurdish-led group’s forces besieged the remaining ISIS militants into surrender, bringing to an end one of the mostaudacious attacks by Islamic State fighters in three years.
ISIS had attacked the prison, in the northeastern city of Hasaka, in a bid to free thousands of the group’s fighters taken captive as the caliphate fell apart, as well as about 700 boys whose families had joined the Islamic State. Officials deemed the boys dangerous, but human rights activists said their detention could violate international law and potentially radicalize them, creating a new generation of jihadists.
Dr. Hans Kluge, the director for the W.H.O.’s European region, warned that it was too early for nations to drop their guard. But he said that between vaccination and immunity through infection, “Omicron offers plausible hope for stabilization and normalization.”