SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Iraq receives 280 IS jihadists from US-backed Syria force
Baghdad, Feb 24 (AFP) Feb 24, 2019
A US-backed force pushing to take the Islamic State group's last speck of territory in eastern Syria on Sunday extradited 280 Iraqi jihadists, Iraq authorities said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have detained "a large number" of IS fighters "of multiple nationalities, including more than 500 Iraqis", the security media office said in a statement.

"So far 280 (Iraqis) have been delivered," it added.

Iraqi security forces on Thursday received a first batch of 130 Iraqi IS members, a military spokesman said, although a spokesman for the US-backed force denied the claims.

The transfers were set to "continue until they are completed", the statement added.

Iraqi security forces had received a list of names to be checked against a database in coordination with the judiciary, which has issued warrants against jihadists.

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said at his weekly press conference Tuesday that the country was monitoring the situation in eastern Syria with caution, as security forces fear IS remnants could sneak across the nearby Iraqi border.

Iraq declared victory against IS in December 2017 after ousting the jihadists from the swathes of Iraq they took in 2014.

Backed by air strikes from a US-led coalition, the SDF have trapped the jihadists in less than half a square kilometre (a fifth of a square mile) in a hamlet in the Syrian desert.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
SPHEREx completes first full sky infrared map of the cosmos
CoDICE instrument returns first-light particle data for IMAP mission
Webb maps carbon rich atmosphere on distorted pulsar planet

24/7 Energy News Coverage
The Quantum Age will be Powered by Fusion
Physicists map axion production paths inside deuterium tritium fusion reactors
Hybrid excitons speed ultrafast energy transfer at 2D organic interface

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
SDA expands Tracking Layer satellite awards and related missile defense contracts
Space Systems Command activates System Delta 80 for assured space access
Rheinmetall ICEYE Space Solutions to provide SAR reconnaissance data to German military

24/7 News Coverage
Philosopher argues AI consciousness may remain unknowable
Climate driven model explores Neanderthal and modern human overlap in Iberia
Economic losses from natural disasters down by a third in 2025: Swiss Re



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.