This is the Guardian.

Today, a prison break in Northern Syria is a bloody reminder of how Islamic state is trying to rebuild

and how Western government policies are helping them do it.

Before we start, a heads up. This episode contains descriptions of violence.

It's a freezing night in late January, in the Northern Syrian city of Hasaka.

Two huge trucks heaved towards the beige walls of a prison, holding thousands of former fighters

from the militant group Islamic State. The trucks come to a sudden stop at the prison gate

in a wall and they explode.

Into the breach run ISIS militants who start firing on the Kurdish soldiers on guard inside.

The imprisoned ISIS fighters joined the attack as well. They were ready, they knew it was coming.

Some of the prisoners, a few wearing orange jumpsuits, used the chaos to make a break for it into

the surrounding town. Kurdish reinforcements arrived and so do American Apache attack helicopters.

The jailbreak becomes an all-out battle inside the prison and the neighborhood's around it.

It's become a siege. The ISIS fighters trapped inside the prison they broke into.

One of the places they take shelter is a dormitory inside the complex where they find caught in

the crossfire, hundreds of boys, teenagers. A young Australian whose family back in Sydney

haven't been able to hear from him in years gets his hands on a phone and manages to send

a few terrified messages. He says he's been injured but there's nowhere to go.

As the killing rages around him, he takes cover. ISIS has fallen out of the news in the past

three years. Last week's attack showed the group still has the capacity to shock and exposed

unfinished business Western governments would prefer the world forgot.

From the Guardian, a Michael Safi, today in focus, the hundreds of foreigners who fought for ISIS

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