ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Washington’s top envoy in Baghdad praised Iraqi authorities for their role in securing the detention of Islamic State (ISIS) militants transferred from Syria earlier this year, lauding Iraq’s efforts to repatriate the detainees to their countries of origin, the US embassy said in a statement on Tuesday.
The US Chargé d’Affaires, Joshua Harris, met with Iraqi Justice Minister Khalid Shwani a day earlier, the embassy said, to “discuss the shared interests of safeguarding Iraq’s sovereignty, defeating terrorism, and bolstering regional stability.”
Harris also “praised Iraq’s ongoing leadership in securely detaining ISIS terrorists, bringing them to justice, and ensuring countries rapidly repatriate their citizens from Iraq,” the statement added.
Syrian government forces and affiliated armed groups earlier this year launched a widescale offensive into territory previously held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and Hasaka provinces.
The SDF, which serves as the de facto military force in northeast Syria (Rojava) and is a key on-the-ground partner of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, played a central role in liberating these areas from the extremist group in 2019 and has since maintained control to prevent its resurgence.
During the Syrian government offensive, SDF units were forced to withdraw from several detention facilities holding thousands of ISIS prisoners, after the Kurdish-led forces had previously maintained security at more than 27 detention facilities and at least two large detention camps in Rojava.
A report by the Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) - the official name of the Washington-led coalition’s anti-ISIS campaign - said in late May that the rapid advance forced “SDF personnel guarding detention facilities holding ISIS detainees to redeploy to front lines, at times before government forces could take control.”
“At least 150 ISIS fighters escaped detention facilities as a result of the Syrian government offensive and its aftermath,” the report added.
Meanwhile, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported earlier this year that between January 21 and February 12, more than 5,700 adult male ISIS fighters were relocated from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.
Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council later confirmed that Baghdad received approximately 5,704 ISIS detainees of 61 nationalities.
It detailed that the total included 3,543 Syrians, 467 Iraqis, 710 detainees from other Arab countries, and more than 980 individuals from Europe, Asia, the United States, and Australia.
Of note, most ISIS suspects in Iraq are tried under Article 4 of Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005, with the majority receiving either the death penalty or life imprisonment under provisions that criminalize anyone who “commits, incites, plans, finances, or assists” a terrorist group.
In February, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that an estimated 8,000 prisoners were on death row in Iraq.
It also urged countries whose citizens are held in Iraq on terrorism-related charges to take steps to expatriate their nationals.