Iraq calls on Western countries to extradite their citizens from Syria

Iraqi National Security Adviser, Qassem Al-Araji, has called on the European Union and other Western countries to extradite their citizens who are being detained in the Syrian prison of Hasakah, stressing that their presence constitutes a threat to the country’s national security, Anadolu reported.

He estimated that there are 10,000 such citizens that need to be returned to their countries of origin and rehabilitated or tried.

Al-Araji made the remarks during his participation in the first national conference to curb extremism and terrorism held in Karbala, southern Iraq.

“The [Iraqi] government has worked to dry up the sources of terrorism, through intelligence and security institutions, and to follow Daesh terrorist leaders, targeting and killing them wherever they are,” Al-Araji said at the conference.

He added that “the government has taken a bold decision to receive 450 Iraqi families or 30,000 Iraqis, including about 20,000 minors from the Al-Hawl camp where illiteracy, ignorance and takfiri ideology are rampant, in an atmosphere of terror and fear.”

“We demand the ambassadors of the European Union countries and those outside the European Union carry out their moral and legal work and receive their citizens who are detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces in Al-Hasakah prison,” he said.

Iraq fears that if the militants escape from prison, they will cross the border into Iraq.

READ: Iraq forces arrest Daesh leader north-east of Syria