Europeans among 150 Daesh detainees transferred from Syria to Iraq

• The US military launched an operation to transfer up to 7,000 high-level Daesh detainees—including Europeans, Asians, and Arabs—from unstable facilities in northeast Syria to secure detention centers in Baghdad to prevent mass jailbreaks during the Syrian government's takeover of Kurdish-held territory.
• Amid the transfers, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and US officials have renewed calls for European nations to repatriate and prosecute their own citizens, while human rights groups like Amnesty International warn that these prisoners face potential "unfair trials" and the death penalty in Iraq.

Europeans were among 150 senior Daesh detainees transferred this week by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria to neighbouring Iraq, whose premier urged EU countries to repatriate their nationals.

They were among an estimated 7,000 detainees due to be moved to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swathes of territory to the advancing Syrian army.

In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery, but backed by a US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately defeated the group in Syria five years later.

This month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with the Kurds had largely expired, as Syria's new authorities pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF, which agreed to withdraw from areas in the north and east.

An Iraqi security official said the 150 detainees, who the US military transferred to Iraq on Wednesday, were "all leaders of [Daesh], and some of the most notorious criminals", and included "Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis".

Another Iraqi security source said the group included "85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis and people from the Caucasus region".

They "all participated in [Daesh] operations in Iraq", including the major 2014 offensive that saw the group seize large pieces of territory, he said, adding "are all at the level of emirs" within the group's hierarchy.

They are now held at a prison in Baghdad.

“Take responsibility”

Amnesty International said in a statement Friday that the group of 7,000 slated for transfer "likely includes Syrians, Iraqis & other foreign nationals, and approximately 1,000 boys and young men".

The rights group urged the US to "urgently put in place safeguards before making any further transfers", and called on Iraq to hold "fair trials, without recourse to the death penalty".

Iraq, where courts have handed down hundreds of sentences of death and life imprisonment to people convicted of terrorism, said it would launch legal proceedings against the transferred detainees.

In a telephone call Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stressed the importance of European countries "assuming their responsibilities" by taking back and prosecuting their nationals.

The SDF jailed thousands of suspected Daesh fighters and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out the group of areas they control.

In a previous report, Amnesty estimated that around 10,000 Daesh suspects were held in Kurdish-run prisons as of August 2023.

Despite repeated Kurdish and US appeals, foreign governments have generally avoided repatriating their nationals, fearing security threats and political backlash.

Daesh’s onslaught came during the peak of Syria's civil war, which was sparked by longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

After toppling Assad just over a year ago, President Ahmed al-Sharaa is now seeking to consolidate government control over all of Syria, with tensions between his authorities and the de facto autonomous Kurdish administration recently boiling over into clashes.

The army has accused the SDF of releasing Daesh detainees from the Shadadi prison, while the Kurds said they lost control of the facility after an attack by Damascus.

Syrian authorities later said they had arrested "81 of the fugitives".

The EU said Friday that alleged jailbreaks were of "paramount concern", adding it was monitoring the transfer of prisoners to Iraq, "including foreign terrorist fighters".

In north Syria's Raqa province, an AFP correspondent saw Kurdish forces who formerly controlled the Al-Aqtan prison for Daesh detainees being bussed out Friday under a deal with the government.

Al-Hol camp

UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Celine Schmitt said Friday that the agency, accompanied by Syrian government officials, had entered Al-Hol camp -- the biggest facility housing relatives of suspected Daesh members -- after "a three-day interruption caused by the volatile security situation".

Kurdish forces withdrew from Al-Hol on Tuesday and the following day Syria's army entered the camp, where thousands of men, women and children have lived in squalid conditions for years.

"The delivery of essential supplies has resumed," Schmitt said, adding that "trucks carrying bread entered the camp today".

The camp houses some 23,000 people -- mostly Syrians but also around 2,200 Iraqis and 6,200 other foreign women and children, according to its former administration.

Two former employees of organisations working at the site said an unspecified number of residents fled during an hours-long security vacuum between the SDF withdrawal and the army takeover.

After recent clashes, Sharaa announced a deal Sunday with SDF chief Mazloum Abdi on the integration of the Kurds' administration into the state, which will take responsibility for Daesh prisoners.

A four-day ceasefire agreed on Tuesday after tensions reignited is set to expire on Saturday evening.