Intel: Blinken urges allies to repatriate IS fighters from Syria
The Syrian Democratic Forces are holding an estimated 10,000 suspected Islamic State fighters, a situation Secretary of State Antony Blinken said is "untenable."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on US allies Monday to take responsibility for their citizens suspected of joining the Islamic State and who remain in the custody of Kurdish forces in northeast Syria.
“This situation is simply untenable. It just can’t persist indefinitely,” Blinken said in Rome during his opening remarks at a ministerial meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
“The United States continues to urge countries — including coalition partners — to repatriate, rehabilitate and, where applicable, prosecute its citizens,” he said.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are holding some 10,000 suspected militants in informal detention centers. About 2,000 of them are foreigners, the US government estimates. The United States has repatriated 28 of its citizens from northeast Syria and is prosecuting many of them on terror-related charges.
