About 95 prisoners escaped from an Islamic State prison in al Bab near the border with Turkey but many have been recaptured, according to SOHR. The jihadist group beheaded eight men from al Bab on Mar. 9. Kurdish fighters are training a civilian defense force. The US-led coalition conducted 12 airstrikes in Syria from Mar. 6-9, all of them on Islamic State targets near Kobani. According to a separate report, the US also hit an Al Nusrah headquarters near Aleppo on Mar. 8. Unidentified gunmen killed 12 Islamic State fighters in the town of al-Mayadin in eastern Syria.
