Foreign Fighters Are Held in Syria as Home Countries Refuse Their Return
Foreign Fighters Are Held in Syria as Home Countries Refuse Their Return
The capture of five foreign fighters, including two Americans, by U.S.-backed forces battling Islamic State in Syria is spotlighting a long-simmering problem: Countries are largely refusing to repatriate hundreds of such militants held there.
The Syrian Democratic Forces on Sunday said they captured the foreign fighters as part of a monthslong campaign backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes to defeat the militant group in its last territorial pocket in Syria’s east. One of the Americans came from Texas and applied to become an English teacher with Islamic State, researchers from the Program on Extremism at George Washington University said.
Thousands of foreign fighters joined Islamic State as the militant group took over swaths of Syria and Iraq starting in mid-2014. In the past two years, however, the group has suffered heavy military defeats and its self-declared caliphate has been sharply reduced.
Around 800 foreign fighters are held at prisons under the SDF’s supervision, Kurdish officials said. Additionally, hundreds of foreign women who were married to Islamic State members and their children are held at various camps.
But as the war against Islamic State winds down and the U.S. gives mixed signals about its intentions to leave Syria, the fate of the Kurds and the foreign fighters in their prisons is increasingly uncertain.
The Kurdish-led forces have urged countries—many of whom supported the fight against Islamic State—to take back their citizens, though few have amid concerns about how to prosecute them or the security risks they may pose.
“These countries need to take responsibility,” said Ilham Ahmad, a leader of the Syrian Democratic Council, the mostly Kurdish political wing of the U.S.-backed force. “It’s a burden and in the future it will be an even bigger burden.”
The Kurdish-led force has been the U.S.’s main partner in the fight against Islamic State. It was caught off-guard in December when President Trump abruptly announced an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, a move that would leave the Kurds exposed to possible military action from Turkey and the Syrian government. Ankara views the YPG Kurdish militia, the main force in the SDF, as terrorists and a threat to its security, while President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to reassert control over all of Syria.
Since then, Mr. Trump has walked back talk of a rapid drawdown and White House national security adviser John Bolton on Sunday said the Trump administration won’t withdraw forces from northern Syria unless Turkey offers a firm commitment not to target the U.S.’s Kurdish allies.
Amid uncertainty over their own future, the Kurd-led forces have said they aren’t equipped to prosecute the militants themselves, while warning of the threat from these militants.
“They are being held in an area that is not stable and any vacuum or chaos could allow them to break out of prison and it would be a burden and big danger,” said Abdulkarim Omar, a leader of the Kurdish-led foreign-relations commission, which is affiliated with the U.S.-backed SDF.
Warren Christopher Clark, originally from Houston, was among five foreign fighters caught by U.S.-backed forces battling Islamic State in Syria.
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SDF
Zaid Abed al-Hamid, an American, was also among those captured.
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SDF
The SDF identified the two Americans that were recently captured as Warren Christopher Clark, from Houston, and Zaid Abed al-Hamid. Two Pakistani men and an Irishman were also captured.
A coalition spokesman referred questions about repatriation of American citizens to the State Department, which didn’t immediately respond. American defense officials have previously said the U.S. has returned some two dozen suspected Islamic State militants to their home countries.
Mr. Omar said even with such transfers occurring, they didn’t address the problem of the hundreds of foreign fighters still detained. The foreign detainees come are from 48 countries, he said.
This month, the U.S. helped hand over several dozen Kazakh citizens to their country, including five militants, 11 women and 30 children, Mr. Omar said.
Kurdish officials have reached out to all countries with citizens in detention, but few have responded. Kazakhstan, Russia, Sudan and Indonesia have repatriated some families. At least one American, a woman, and an Iraqi woman have also been returned to their countries, he said.
The U.S., France and Britain are helping with the cost of imprisoning the militants, with the Pentagon assisting in the detention of about 600 in seven facilities. The U.S. Defense Department has paid to upgrade the facilities and improve conditions, U.S. officials said.
But guarding the detainees or holding their families in tent camps is left to the Kurdish-led forces. The countries helping them detain the militants have made no commitments about what to do with them long term, said Ms. Ahmad, the council leader. “They say it’s a topic for later.”
Repatriating the fighters raises a separate set of legal problems for those countries, which may find hurdles prosecuting crimes that happened in a foreign war zone, part of the broader challenge of seeking justice from Syria’s conflict.
French officials have previously called for their citizens caught fighting for Islamic State to be prosecuted in Syria. But Kurdish officials say they don’t have the capacity to try hundreds of them.
“We can’t do it alone,” Mr. Omar said. “Everyone is running away from the responsibility.”
Write to Raja Abdulrahim at raja.abdulrahim@wsj.com
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