Syrian Kurds hand over four Islamic State children to Germany: official
Thousands of Islamic State families, children and civilians evacuated by Syrian Kurdish forces near the village of Baghouz in the Deir Az Zor province, Syria, March 2019. Photo: AFP
SIMALKA CROSSING, Syrian Kurdistan,— The Kurdish authorities in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in northeast Syria Monday handed over four children linked with the Islamic State group to Germany in their first such repatriation to the European country, an official said.
“The autonomous region is handing over four children from IS families to a delegation from Germany,” Fanar Kaeet, a foreign affairs official with the Kurdish authorities, told AFP.
He said three had lost both their parents, while a fatherless fourth was sick.
Germany is set to take back over a hundred children born to suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members as well as “scores of men and women,” according to a local monitor in Syrian Kurdistan, in would be the largest scale repatriation of ISIS-linked nationals by a European country to date.
The repatriations will be Germany’s first, with “over 100 ISIS-linked German children, plus scores of men & women” held by the NES set to be returned, Rojava Information Center (RIC) said on Sunday.
The Syrian Kurdish forces expelled the Islamic State extremist group from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019, after larger than expected numbers of families emerged from the ruins.
Following the collapse of the group’s “caliphate”, alleged IS fighters from nearly 50 countries have been detained in Syria and Iraq.
Syria’s Kurds have detained hundreds of foreigners suspected of fighting for IS, as well as thousands of related women and children, during the US-backed battle against IS in Syria.
Over 11,000 of Islamic State family members are being held in Syria’s al-Hol camp alone.
U.S. has for years supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
The Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ considered the most effective fighting force against IS. The YPG, which make up the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
Copyright © 2019, respective author or news agency, Ekurd.net | AFP
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