Dozens escape Islamic State-run jail in Syria say war monitoring group

Beirut: Around 95 captives have escaped an Islamic State-run prison in northern Syria, a group monitoring the war said on Tuesday, saying the escapees included about 30 Kurdish fighters.

The jailbreak happened in the town of al-Bab, 30 km (20 miles) south of the Turkish frontier, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State controls tracts of territory across northern Syria and runs its own prisons, courts and other facilities in what it describes as an Islamic caliphate extending into Iraq.

Kurdish fighters backed by US-led air strikes have been trying to drive back Islamic State across northern Syria. The escapees also included Syrian civilians and members of Islamic battalions opposed to the more hardline Islamic State, the Observatory said.

Islamic State has put the town on high alert and has been using loudspeakers to tell citizens to capture the escapees, the Observatory said, citing people on the ground. Al-Bab was the site of Islamic State infighting over the weekend when several of its members broke out of another jail in the town and tried to head for the Turkish border.

The group, which included mainly European fighters, was stopped by other Islamic State members in clashes that killed at least nine, the Observatory said.