SDF hands over 50 Iraqi IS suspects as prison concerns mount
The SDF has transferred another group of IS suspects with Iraqi nationality but arrested in Syria, alongside some of the thousands of Iraqis in al-Hol camp, to Iraq as the potential for jailbreaks remains high.
BAGHDAD — Fifty Iraqi men suspected of belonging to the Islamic State (IS) and who had been captured in northeastern Syria were handed over to the Iraqi authorities Jan. 8 at the country’s northwestern border crossing of Rabia.
As the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continue growing closer to the government in Damascus, and concerns fester about the potential for jailbreaks from prison facilities housing thousands of Iraqis as well as Syrians and others accused of involvement in IS in northeastern Syria, efforts seem to be underway to bring back more individuals across the border.
On Nov. 8, a major planned attack on the notorious Sinaa prison in the Ghweiran neighborhood in the western part of the city of Hasakah was thwarted.
The SDF announced Dec. 25 that they had arrested the man they held to have been responsible for the plan to attack the prison, calling him an "emir" ("leader"), but without giving information on the place and date of the arrest.
