Syrian rebels call off Aleppo prison siege after troops throw inmates out window

From The Telegraph.

Syrian rebels call off Aleppo prison siege after troops throw inmates out window


Rebel forces besieging the main prison in Aleppo claimed they were forced to call off an assault after the troops defending it began shooting inmates and throwing them out of the windows.


Forces belonging to the Free Syrian Army have managed to fight their way around the northern outskirts of the city, where the jail is situated, since seizing the nearby Rangers Academy three months ago.

They drove troops out of an unfinished extension to the prison earlier this week, and on Wednesday drove holes, including by blowing up two cars, in the wall surrounding the main compound where up to 4,000 prisoners are being held by several hundred troops.

But they failed to take the prison itself on Friday. "I saw ten bodies being thrown out today," said Anas, 30, a soldier speaking after withdrawing from the rebels' front line. "Yesterday, we attacked at about 5 o'clock, but when we began they started throwing bodies through the window.

"The bodies are still there, and we are close enough to smell them. We cannot get them because they are in the line of fire." He said the attack had stopped to prevent more prisoners being killed.

The prison was for regular criminals, the local FSA leader, Jaber Abu Madian, said, but that political prisoners had been taken there in recent months. He feared it was these men who were being killed. "We can hear shouts of 'God is Great' from inside when we begin opening fire," he said.

The Daily Telegraph saw mortar fire being exchanged from either side of the prison compound, which is sited on a 500-metre long site in a valley stretching north from the city limits. It could not verify the story of the bodies being thrown out of the window.

Syrian state media said its forces had managed to repel the assault.

The FSA said it had lost six men dead and 12 wounded in the assault so far.