Thousands of detainees held over Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) links and transferred in recent weeks from northeastern Syria to Iraq under a US military operation include 160 Turkish nationals, according to figures provided by an Iraqi security official.
Iraq has received 5,046 of about 7,000 detainees previously held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Iraqi security official told Agence France-Presse. The transfers began last month after shifting control lines in Syria raised questions about the security of detention facilities run by the SDF, a US partner force that led ground operations against ISIL.
The breakdown provided to AFP said the detainees transferred so far include 3,245 Syrians, 271 Iraqis and 610 from other Arab countries. It also includes more than 900 foreigners from Europe, Asia and Australia, including more than 130 Russians.
The transfers add pressure on Iraq’s detention system, where prisons have long held large numbers of people accused of ISIL links. Iraqi courts have issued death sentences and life terms in terrorism cases, including for foreign fighters, though Iraq’s use of capital punishment has drawn criticism from human rights groups.
Earlier this month Iraq’s judiciary said it had started investigations into detainees moved from Syria, without providing a nationality breakdown.
ISIL seized large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, carrying out mass killings and abducting women and girls. Iraq declared victory over the group in 2017 with help from the US-led coalition. The SDF later captured the group’s last territorial holdout in Syria in 2019 and went on to detain thousands of suspected fighters and hold tens of thousands of relatives in camps.
The US began moving detainees from Syria to Iraqi-controlled facilities as it coordinated with the Iraqi government on keeping the prisoners secure. US officials have urged countries to repatriate their citizens and take responsibility for prosecution and detention.
© Agence France-Presse