At Least Seven Dead in Prison Unrest and Fire in Northern Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria — A fire and prison riot in the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria have left at least seven people dead, according to state media.

The SANA news agency reported that the fire was sparked after inmates at Kobani prison rioted, driven by tensions that had escalated in the town the day before between Kurdish and Arab residents. The prison remains under the control of Kurdish forces, even as Syrian government troops have recently entered the border town near Turkey.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an independent war monitor, said the unrest was triggered by authorities’ plans to relocate certain detainees to a prison in the northern city of Aleppo.

Kobani, which endured a prolonged siege by the Islamic State group a decade ago, served as the launching point for a U.S.-backed Kurdish military campaign that ultimately stripped the extremists of the final territory they had seized in 2019.

On Friday, unrest erupted in Kobani after Kurds accused Arabs of killing a Kurdish man. Friction between the Kurdish minority and the central government continues to simmer, despite recent efforts to bring northeastern Syria under the authority of Damascus’s new administration.

In late August, the commander of the Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced the formal disbanding of the group, which had previously maintained a de facto autonomous zone across Syria’s northeast.

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