Two Iraqi intelligence officials say the U.S. is going to hand over to Iraqi authorities dozens of Islamic State members who were evacuated from Syria.
FILE - In this March 30, 2019, file photo, Alexanda Amon Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were allegedly among four British jihadis who made up a brutal Islamic State cell dubbed "The Beatles," speak during an interview with The Associated Press at a security center in Kobani, Syria, Friday, March 30, 2018. The men said that their home country's revoking of their citizenship denies them a fair trial.
The move comes after Turkey began a military offensive into northern Syria against U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces who are holding more than 10,000 IS members. Those include some 2,000 foreigners, including about 800 Europeans. There are concerns that with the assault unfolding in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led forces in charge of guarding the detainees won’t be able to secure them or would divert forces to fend off against advancing Turkish forces.
In 2014 and 2015, the militants held more than 20 Western hostages in Syria and tortured many of them. The group beheaded seven American, British and Japanese journalists and aid workers and a group of Syrian soldiers, boasting of the butchery in videos released to the world. IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called caliphate in 2014 in large parts of Syria and Iraq that the extremists controlled. IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in March the SDF captured the last sliver of land that was held by IS.
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