SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Fifty Islamic State (ISIS) suspects were handed over to Iraq from Syrian side, the security media cell said on Saturday.
In a statement, Iraq’s security media cell said all the suspects were Iraqi nationals, who were arrested inside Syrian territories.
The handover took place in coordination between the Joint Operations Command and the Syria side through Rabia port in northwestern Iraq, it added.
The security media cell didn’t mention the party that arrested the suspects and handed over them to Iraq.
Last year, the U.S.-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) handed over 100 alleged ISIS members to Iraq.
Around 1,600 Iraqis were still detained in northeast Syria at the end of 2020 over allegedly fighting for ISIS, according to a U.N. report released in February.
Iraq has tried thousands of its nationals for belonging to a “terrorist group”, which carries the death penalty in accordance with the country’s 2005 counter-terror law.
