US to repatriate family of 10 Americans from camps in Syria - report

Clashes between the PKK/YPG (PKK listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the U.S. and the EU and YPG which Turkiye consider as the extension of PKK in Syria) and Arab tribes in Deir ez-Zor spread to Manbij, in Syria, on September 1, 2023 [Bekir Kasım – Anadolu Agency]

The State Department is working to repatriate a family of 10 American citizens stranded in Syria, according to officials, the New York Times reports.

According to the report, the transfer would make them the largest group brought back to the United States from north-eastern Syria, where they are being held by a Kurdish-led militia. The American government has repatriated 40 such citizens since 2016 — 25 children and 15 adults, according to the State Department.

The group consists of Brandy Salman, 49, and nine of her children, who range in age from about 6 to about 25, and all appear to have been born in the United States. Ms. Salman’s husband, who was from Turkiye, seems to have taken her and their children into Daesh territory around 2016 and was apparently later killed, the report says.

The detention centres in north-eastern Syria typically hold the families of suspected Daesh militants. Much remains unclear about the family’s interactions with the group before the collapse of the so-called caliphate, the report added.

READ: UK must repatriate more British nationals from Syria, terror legislation reviewer says

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