ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq is prepared to receive Islamic State (ISIS) prisoners previously held in facilities controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria (Rojava), Baghdad’s foreign minister said Sunday, but emphasized that the financial and security responsibilities of this process should not fall solely on Iraq.
“We have decided that if there is a case of handing over these prisoners to Iraq, we are ready to receive them and transfer them to Iraqi prisons,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said in remarks to reporters, including Rudaw, in Baghdad.
The senior Iraqi diplomat, however, emphasized that “during our discussions with both the European Union and the United States, we stressed that the security and financial responsibility for transferring these detainees should not fall solely on the Iraqi government.”
“We are in the process of addressing this issue [of financial and security liabilities], and I have brought it to the Iraqi government,” Hussein added.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Wednesday the transfer of 150 Islamic State (ISIS) detainees from a detention facility in Rojava’s eastern Hasaka province to a secure location in Iraq, noting that up to 7,000 ISIS prisoners could eventually be moved.
Brigadier General Miqdad Miri, spokesperson for Iraq’s interior ministry, then stated that of the estimated 7,000 detainees, some 1,500 to 2,000 are Iraqi nationals, while the remainder are foreign nationals. The prisoners will be distributed among various prisons across Iraq, Miri added, excluding the Kurdistan Region.
Earlier that day, Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, announced that Baghdad’s National Security Ministerial Council had agreed to “receive both Iraqi and foreign ISIS detainees” previously held in prisons secured by the SDF, and “place them in government correctional facilities.”
“The first batch includes 150 ISIS members,” Numan said, noting the decision followed “an emergency meeting” with the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. The number of detainees in subsequent batches will depend on the security and field situation, he added, warning that “some are top-level [ISIS] leaders who pose a potential security threat.”
For his part, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hussein noted on Sunday that the transfer of ISIS prisoners depends on “operational and security conditions inside Syrian territory,” particularly in Hasaka, which “houses the largest ISIS prison, containing dangerous elements, including ISIS leaders.”
The ISIS prisoners’ dossier has emerged as a flashpoint in Syria in recent weeks.
In mid-January, the Syrian Arab Army and affiliated armed groups launched a large-scale offensive to retake areas in eastern Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and Hasaka that the Kurdish-led SDF had controlled for nearly a decade.
The SDF, the de facto military force in Rojava and a key US-led Coalition ally, played a crucial role in defeating ISIS territorially in 2019. Since then, the Kurdish-led forces maintained control over the areas they liberated, much of which has now been recaptured by Damascus and its allied forces.
Amid the offensive, the SDF announced it had lost control over several facilities holding ISIS detainees, including the al-Shaddadi prison in southern Hasaka, with reports indicating that between 120 and 1,500 detainees may have escaped during the violence.
The Kurdish-led forces were also forced to withdraw from the notorious al-Hol camp in Hasaka. Rojava officials confirmed to Rudaw that “a total of 7,130 families - 25,183 individuals - were held at al-Hol camp prior to the SDF’s withdrawal.”
Sheikhmous Ahmed, who oversees camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugees in Rojava, added that “it remains unclear how many detainees have fled and who currently controls the camp.”
The Iraqi emergency response comes amid heightened fears that ISIS could stage a comeback in light of the mass prison breaks.