Feb 13 (Reuters) – U.S. military forces have completed their mission in Syria to transfer Islamic State detainees to Iraq, U.S. Central Command said on Friday.
“The 23-day transfer mission began on Jan. 21 and resulted in U.S. forces successfully transporting more than 5,700 adult male ISIS fighters from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody,” Central Command said in a statement.
The transfer started after a rapid offensive by Syrian government forces in northeast Syria against Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S. ally which had guarded the Islamic State detainees and the facilities where they were incarcerated for years.
On January 29, the United States brokered a ceasefire deal that set out a phased integration of Kurdish fighters into the central state.
U.S. Maj. Gen. Kevin Lambert, a CENTCOM commander, said “The successful execution of this orderly and secure transfer operation will help prevent an ISIS resurgence in Syria.”
Iraq’s foreign minister Fuad Hussein told Reuters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference that discussion with “some Arab and Muslim countries” to take back their citizens had started.
Baghdad would need more financial assistance to deal with the influx, Hussein said.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; Writing by Feras Dalatey; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
