ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Foreigners suspected of traveling to Syria to join or fight for the Islamic State jihadist group will not be tried in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria but will face justice in their home countries, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Sunday.
Hours after US President Donald Trump called on European nations to take back their citizens held by Kurdish forces in northern Syria, the SDF repeated its earlier statement: “We do not try any foreigners on our land. They will be tried by their own countries.”
Hundreds of suspected ISIS fighters and their families are held by Kurdish forces in northern Syria. Public debate over their fate has grown as the last ISIS remnants approach defeat in eastern Syria and US forces prepare to withdraw.
Several of these ISIS suspects have also appealed to their home governments to take them back, including London-born jihadi bride Shamima Begum.
“The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial,” Trump tweeted early on Sunday.
“The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them.”
“The US does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go. We do so much, and spend so much – Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing. We are pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory!” Trump added.
The US President announced last fall he was ordering the withdrawal of 2,000 US forces station in northern Syria once ISIS was defeated.
In a press conference on Sunday evening following a meeting, Redur Khalil, a spokesperson and senior SDF official, said international coalition partners are still present on the ground in Syria.
“We are maintaining practical coordinations with them,” he said.
The next phase of their coordination on the ground is to make sure ISIS is eradicated, Khalil added.
Strategic rivals and critics of the US decision to withdraw warn America’s Kurdish allies could be left at the mercy of the Syrian regime or Turkish military intervention.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his Russian backers urged the Kurds on Sunday to negotiate a settlement, warning the US would not protect them from Turkey.
“If you don’t prepare yourselves to defend your country and resist, you will be nothing but a slave to the Ottomans,” Assad warned in a televised speech.
“No one will protect you except your state. No one will defend you except the Syrian Arab army,” he added.
On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Vershinin said: “The Kurds are a part of the population of Syria ... We know about the problems between Damascus and the Kurds but I think there is a solution through dialogue.”
Turkey has long criticized US support for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) which makes up the backbone of the SDF. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization with the ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
ISIS remnants in eastern Syria are on the brink of defeat, according to SDF and coalition statements. Up to 1,000 civilians are thought to remain inside the group’s last holdout in Deir ez-Zor.