Thousands of Islamic State group prisoners are being transferred from detention facilities in northeast Syria to Iraq, following a request from Baghdad officials that has been welcomed by both the US-led coalition and the Syrian government.
The move comes after the US military announced on Wednesday that it had begun relocating some of the approximately 9,000 IS detainees currently held in more than a dozen centres across northeast Syria, which are controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The initial transfer involved 150 IS members, moved from Syria’s northeastern province of Hassakeh to "secure locations" in Iraq, with up to 7,000 detainees potentially being transferred to Iraqi-controlled facilities.
