RAQA: Europeans were among 150 Islamic State (IS) 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 members of the militant group 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, IS swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres but backed by a US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately defeated the outfit 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 on Friday that alleged breakouts by detained IS foreign fighters in Syria were of “paramount concern” and it 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 IS, and some of the most notorious criminals”. They 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 IS operations in Iraq”, including the 2014 offensive that saw the militant group seize large areas of Iraq and Syria, he added.
Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2026