Europeans among 150 Daesh detainees transferred from Syria to Iraq

RAQQA, Syria: Europeans were among 150 senior Daesh group detainees transferred this week by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria to Iraq, whose premier urged EU countries to repatriate their nationals.
They were among an estimated 7,000 militants due to be moved across the border 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 militants 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 swathes of territory in the north and east.
The EU said Friday that alleged breakouts by detained Daesh foreign fighters in Syria were of “paramount concern” and was monitoring the transfer of prisoners to Iraq, “including foreign terrorist fighters.”
An Iraqi security official said the 150 detainees, which the US military transferred to Iraq on Wednesday, were “all leaders of the Daesh group, and some of the most notorious criminals,” and included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis.”