US to move ISIS prisoners from Syria to Iraq

The U.S. military has begun moving up to 7,000 Islamic State (IS) group detainees from prisons in northeastern Syria to Iraq as Syria’s new government takes control of an area long ruled by Kurdish-led forces.

The U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said it had moved 150 Islamic State militants from Hasakah province to “safe locations” in Iraq.

The move is said to be aimed at preventing prisoners from escaping and regrouping.

The ceasefire puts much of northeastern Syria under Damascus’ control after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) withdrew from key areas, including detention facilities holding thousands of Islamic State suspects and their relatives.

Central Command said its commander, Adm. Brad Cooper, discussed the transfer with Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Shara, emphasizing the need for Syrian forces to maintain the ceasefire and avoid any actions that could interfere with what he called an “orderly and safe transfer” of detainees.

Human rights group Reprieve has warned that detainees transferred to Iraq could face torture and execution and urged the British government to determine whether any British nationals were among those transferred.

The charity said it believed there were fewer than 10 British men in prison, but the exact number was not yet known. The report said about 55 to 60 British nationals, mostly children, remained detained in camps and prisons in the area.

Fresh clashes broke out despite a ceasefire, with the Syrian Defense Ministry saying a drone strike in Hasakah on Wednesday killed seven soldiers, calling the incident a ceasefire violation.

The SDF denied carrying out the attack and blamed Damascus for also carrying out attacks, including one near the Turkish border town of Kobani.

The government and the SDF had earlier blamed each other over the escape of suspected Islamic State militants from a SDF-run prison in Shadadi, southern Hasakah.

Syria’s interior ministry said late Monday that its special forces and army soldiers had entered the town after “some 120 (IS) terrorists” escaped from a prison. Security forces allegedly subsequently captured 81 fugitives.

The SDF said it lost control of the prison after clashes with “Damascus-affiliated factions” and warned of a “serious security disaster”.

According to Reuters, SDF spokesman Farhad Shami said that about 1,500 “Islamic State” members may have escaped during the conflict. The SDF also accused government forces of attacking the Aktan prison north of Raqqa city, which also houses Islamic State members and leaders.

The SDF, which helped U.S.-led forces defeat Islamic State during Syria’s 13-year civil war, has imprisoned some 12,000 Islamic State members, including thousands of foreigners, with U.S. support, while detaining tens of thousands of ISIS relatives in camps in the northeast.

However, U.S. envoy Tom Barak said the U.S. alliance with the SDF has “Basically overdue,” his country’s current focus is on securing Islamic State detention facilities and facilitating negotiations between the SDF and Sala’s government.

He wrote on