Resurgent Islamic State launches carefully planned jihad attacks in Syria and Iraq, dozens killed

Emboldened and resurgent due to Biden’s handlers’ weakness.

“SOHR: IS gunmen mount deadly attacks in Syria, Iraq; dozens killed,” SOHR, January 21, 2022 (thanks to Henry):

The Islamic State group launched sophisticated attacks in Syria and Iraq, including an attempt to break into a prison where suspected extremists are being held by U.S.-backed fighters, officials said Friday. Dozens of detainees in Syria and 11 Iraqi troops were killed.

The separate attacks are believed to be some of the largest since IS lost the final sliver of territory it held nearly three years ago. In recent months, IS sleeper cells have become more active in both countries, claiming attacks that have killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians.

In Iraq, IS gunmen attacked an army barracks in a mountainous area north of Baghdad early Friday, killing 11 soldiers as they slept, the Iraqi military and security officials said.

The officials said the attack occurred in the Al-Azim district, an open area north of the city of Baqouba in Diyala province. The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear, but two officials who spoke to The Associated Press said IS militants broke into the barracks at 3 a.m. local time and shot dead the soldiers, before fleeing.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to issue official statements. An Iraqi military statement said the dead included an officer with the rank of lieutenant and 10 soldiers.

The brazen attack more than 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the capital Baghdad was one of the deadliest targeting the Iraqi military in recent months.

In Syria, more than 100 IS fighters using heavy machine guns and vehicles rigged with explosives attacked the Gweiran Prison in the northeastern city of Hassakeh where some 3,000 suspected IS militants are being held, according to a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Farhad Shami. He said seven U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters were killed and several others were wounded. At least 23 IS attackers were also among the dead, he said.

“This is the biggest attack not only in Syria but also in Iraq and the region,” Shami said in reference to attacks carried out by IS since they were defeated in Syria in March 2019. “The prisoners include commanders and are among the most dangerous.”

The complex attack was mounted on Thursday evening and aimed to free fighters from the group incarcerated there. Kurdish-led forces who control the Gweiran Prison said prisoners inside the facility rioted simultaneously and tried to escape while a car bomb went off outside the prison and gunmen clashed with security forces.

The fighters were led by foreign militants, not Syrians, many of whom spoke in Iraqi dialect, Shami said….