Syrian rebels release hundreds of inmates out of Aleppo prison.

Syrian rebels release hundreds of inmates out of Aleppo prison.(Telegraph).By Ruth Sherlock.

Syrian rebels have breached part of Aleppo’s central prison, releasing several hundred inmates in a bloody firefight with regime troops, activists have reported.

The prison, which the rebels have been laying siege to for almost a year, has become a military base for the Syrian army but still has up to 4000 prisoners languishing in their cells, disease-riven and surviving on pitiful amounts of food.

Up to 300 prisoners were released in the operation, which was led by Jabhat al-Nusra, a group affiliated with al-Qaeda, and Ahrar al-Sham, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent have tried to bring food rations to the prisoners and rescue those who have finished their sentences, often having to cross front lines to do so.

One Red Crescent member, who wished to remain anonymous, last year told the news site Syria Deeply of the desperate living conditions. Prisoners, they said, are suffering from overcrowding, and lack of food. With little water available, diseases, including scabies and tuberculosis, are rife.

An unknown number of prisoners have died from disease during the course of the siege, while others have been killed in their cells as a result of the fighting between the rebels and regime troops.
Unable to take them out, the victims have reportedly been buried in a mass grave inside the prison.