U.S.-backed SDF hands over 280 Iraqi, foreign detainees to Iraq

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U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have handed 280 Iraqi and foreign detainees to Iraq in recent days, Iraq's military said in a statement on Sunday.

An Iraqi colonel confirmed that 130 people were transferred on Sunday, adding to the 150 transferred on Thursday. They included the first known transfers of non-Iraqi detainees to Iraq, but it was unclear if they will remain in Iraqi custody.

There are meant to be more such handovers under an agreement to transfer some 500 detainees held by the SDF in Syria, according to Iraqi military sources.

Among the 280 were 14 French citizens and six Arabs of unspecific nationality, according to one military source, who is close to the handover process and commands troops near the Syrian border.

The Iraqi military has said only Iraqi nationals were handed over by the SDF.

Women and children are searched by SDF fighters after fleeing ISIL's last holdout of Baghouz in Syria's northern Deir Ezzor province, February 22, 2019. /VCG Photo

Ahmed al-Mahallawi, the mayor of the Iraqi border town of Al-Qaim, said on Thursday that some fighters' families had also been transferred.

"Early this morning, 10 trucks loaded with Daesh fighters and their families were handed over by SDF forces to the Iraqi army," he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIL.

Around 800 foreign jihadist fighters who joined ISIL, including many Iraqis, are being held in Syria by the SDF, the group has said. More than 2,000 family members are also in camps, with dozens more arriving each day.

The fate of the detainees has become more pressing in recent days as U.S.-backed fighters plan their assault to capture the last remnants of the terrorist group's self-styled caliphate.

The militant group still poses a threat in Iraq and some western officials believe that ISIL's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, may still be hiding in the area.

Source(s): Reuters