Iraqi security officials claimed on Wednesday that they had received 50 Islamic State (IS) fighters arrested earlier in Syria by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
According to the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC), the captives were handed over through the Rabia border crossing in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, with the collaboration of the JOC and SDF.
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The convicts will be interrogated by the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s Agency of Intelligence and Federal Investigation before legal action is taken, according to the statement.
Iraq has received multiple batches of Iraqi and international citizens linked to the IS organisation who were detained in Syria from the Syrian side.
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IS terrorists declared a caliphate in portions of Iraq and Syria in 2014, but after the group was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria later that year, hundreds of IS supporters were murdered or kidnapped.
Before SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami proclaimed the operation’s completion on Wednesday afternoon, the SDF stated 23 prison guards held as hostages had been released and more than 1,000 terrorists and detainees had surrendered.
Mr Shami made no mention of the 700 youngsters who were allegedly used as human shields by IS fighters and detainees, according to the SDF.
“Had the protection of the children not been our first priority, we could have accomplished this operation in one to two days with heavy weaponry,” he told a news agency.
