BEIRUT, January 23. /TASS/. Kurdish units of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have regained control of the al-Sinaa prison in the Syrian city of al-Hasakah, having liquidated 175 terrorists hiding inside, the Firat Kurdish news agency reported on Sunday.

According to Firat, the operation to take control of the prison was launched after a US airstrike at one of the seized buildings.

The agency quoted the SDF command as saying that the prison had been seized to some 200 militants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) on January 20. They detonated two car bombs at the entryway to the penitentiary facility to facilitate the escape of its inmates.

The al-Sinaa prison holds some 3,500 inmates, including mercenaries who took part in combat operations on the part of Islamic State. They were placed in this prison in the spring of 2019 after SDF units, backed by the US-led Western coalition, liquidated the last Islamic State stronghold in al-Baghuz on the Euphrates eastern bank.

The SDF command claimed that Turkey and Syrian opposition armed groups backed by it supported the Islamic State militants who has seized the prison. "Terrorists reached al-Hasakah from the border areas of Ras Al-Ayn and Tell Abyad that are controlled by Turkish troops and the opposition forces," it said in a statement.