SDF: ‘We captured 970 Daesh fighters holding 48 nationalities’

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) warned of the possibility that hundreds of Daesh fighters and their families, who were detained in camps in the north of Syria, would escape if the Turkish army decided to continue its military operation in the area.

The SDF also noted that 970 Daesh soldiers, holding 48 different nationalities, are currently in its custody.

“2,622 elements affiliated to Daesh, including 584 women and 1,248 children, are being held in heavily guarded camps in northern Syria by the SDF,” it said.

“If the Turkish army carries out its attack on the northern area, we are afraid that we will lose control and that the detainees will return to the terrorist cells they used to belong to or may escape to other countries,” he added.

The source, who asked not to be identified, told Germany’s Deutsche Presse–Agentur (DPA): “We have detained 970 armed Daesh fighters who came from 48 countries, including the US, France, Britain, Belgium, and Chechnya, as well as the Russian Federation. Besides, hundreds of these fighters come from different Arab countries, in addition to others who hold dual nationalities. Nonetheless, we have ten captives who have committed crimes in a number of countries and are pursued internationally.”

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“We have a problem as far as the nationalities of Daesh fighters’ children are concerned. For instance, some women have married several men affiliated to the terrorist organisation, either because of divorce or the death of their husbands, who are Daesh fighters in the first place; and during each marriage, these women become pregnant and bring babies in to the world. There are women who have three children from different husbands who bear different nationalities. Such a situation is problematic as it presents a legal dilemma on an international level. The most challenging aspect of this problem is that none of the countries from which the fighters came accepts to receive these children, except for the Russian Federation which received a number of children and wives after the death of terrorist husbands.”

For his part, a military commander in the Euphrates Shield forces affiliated to the Free Syrian Army accused the SDF of facilitating the escape of thousands of armed Daesh elements along with their families from the north and east of Syria towards the areas controlled by the Euphrates Shield forces in Jarabulus and Azaz in the eastern countryside of Aleppo.

The Euphrates Shield commander said: “Hundreds of Daesh fighters, who hold Syrian and foreign nationalities, have been arrested by our forces, and they have confessed that they paid thousands of dollars or paid hundreds of thousands, in some cases, to escape; especially if they were leaders in Daesh.”

He added that the SDF’s soldiers smuggled them out through trafficking networks linked to it.