Prison riot and fire in a northern Syrian town kills at least 7

A fire and riot in a prison in a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria has killed at least seven people

DAMASCUS, Syria -- A fire and riot broke out in a prison in a predominantly Kurdish town in northern Syria on Saturday, killing at least seven people, state media reported.

The SANA news agency said the fire started when inmates in the Kobani prison rioted over tensions that erupted in the town the previous day between Kurds and Arabs. The prison is still run by Kurdish fighters even though Syrian government forces entered the town along the border with Turkey recently.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the riots started over plans by authorities to transfer some inmates to a prison in the northern city of Aleppo.

Kobani, which had been under siege by the Islamic State group a decade ago, became a springboard for a U.S.-backed Kurdish offensive that ended with the extremists losing the last sliver of land they once held in 2019.

On Friday, riots broke out in Kobani after Kurds blamed Arabs for killing a Kurdish man. Tensions between the Kurdish minority and the central government remain high despite recent moves to bring northeast Syria under the control of the new government in Damascus.

In late August, the commander of the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced the official dissolution of the group, which once controlled a de facto autonomous zone in Syria’s northeast.