HASAKEH: Kurdish fighters on Monday captured the central prison in Hasakeh after fierce clashes with Syrian regime forces and are in control of 90 per cent of the northern city, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighting escalated after heavy overnight clashes that saw the Kurds make advances mostly in the south of the flashpoint city.

Hasakeh, capital of the northeastern province of the same name, is already mostly controlled by Kurdish forces although the majority of its residents are Arabs.

Regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the militant Islamic State (IS) group, but tensions have been growing between the two sides in Hasakeh leading to the latest clashes.

After hours of calm late Sunday, clashes broke out after midnight in the southern district of Ghweiran and around the buildings of Al-Masaken, which the Kurds later captured, said the monitor.

They also routed regime forces from the eastern part of Ghweiran, the largest neighbourhood in Hasakeh, and overran the An-Nashwa area in the south of the city.

The Kurdish forces also seized control of the central prison located in Ghweiran, said the Observatory.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2016