SULAIMANI (ESTA) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday as many as 10,000 Islamic State (ISIS) militants continue to be held in detention in camps run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Blinken spoke at the opening of a meeting in Rome to renew international efforts to combat Islamist militia, according to Reuters.
He said the United States continued to urge countries, including the 78 member countries of the coalition against ISIS, to take back their citizens who had joined the group.
“This situation is simply untenable. It just can’t persist indefinitely. The United States continues to urge countries of origin, including coalition partners, to repatriate, rehabilitate, and where applicable, persecute their citizens,” Blinken added.
He further said another key element of defeating ISIS on a permanent basis required addressing the threat from the group outside Iraq and Syria, and namely in Africa, Reuters reported.
The militant group seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria from 2014, imposing a reign of terror with public beheadings and attacks by supporters abroad.
ISIS was declared militarily defeated in 2017 but has since waged a steady insurgency across parts of Iraqi provinces and a porous border with neighboring Syria.
