US urges allies to repatriate Daesh detainees after Syria prison attack

Gulf Today Report

The United States on Monday urged its allies to repatriate suspected Daesh-linked nationals detained in northeast Syria, after the militant group launched an attack on a prison to free its fighters.

Washington called on its partners in the international coalition to defeat the Daesh, also referred to as ISIS, "to improve the secure and humane detention of ISIS fighters, support rehabilitation initiatives, and urgently repatriate their nationals and other detainees remaining in northeast Syria," in a statement from State Department spokesman Ned Price.

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Meanwhile, a US-backed Kurdish-led force said Monday that a prison overrun by the Daesh group in northeastern Syria was now fully under its control, thwarting a dangerous plot by the extremists to launch further, multiple attacks across the volatile region.

Photo shows Daesh group fighters, who were arrested after they attacked Gweiran Prison in Syria. File/AP

It also appealed for the international community's help in taking responsibility for the tens of thousands of Daesh fighters and their families in detention centers and camps under its control.

The Syrian Democratic Forces said more than 120 of their fighters and prison workers died in the 10-day standoff at the Gweiran prison, also known as Al Sinaa prison, which houses at least 3,000 Deash group detainees. Some 374 Daesh militants, including the initial attackers, were also killed, it added.

It was the biggest military operation by the extremist group since the fall of its self-declared caliphate in 2019 and came as the militants staged deadly attacks in both Syria and Iraq that stoked fears that Daesh may be staging a comeback.

The Kurdish administration's foreign policy chief Abdulkarim Omar said it was up to the international community to put foreign militants on trial or repatriate them.