The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council announced on Thursday that it will launch legal proceedings against Islamic State (IS) group detainees who have been transferred from Syria under a US-led operation. US officials have clarified that foreign fighters among the group will only be held in Iraq temporarily.
The transfer involves thousands of suspected IS members and their families who were held in Syrian detention centers since the group’s defeat in 2019 by Kurdish-led forces. On Wednesday, the US military confirmed it had started an operation to move several thousand of these prisoners to Iraq as Syrian government forces advanced into areas previously secured by Kurdish forces.
In a statement, the Iraqi judiciary affirmed its authority over the matter. “The Iraqi judiciary will begin standard legal proceedings against the defendants who are received,” the Council stated. “All suspects, regardless of their nationalities or ranks within the terrorist organisation, are subject exclusively to the authority of the Iraqi judiciary, and our judicial procedures will be applied to them all without exception.”
While the US military aims to transfer 7,000 detainees, the Iraqi government has so far confirmed the arrival of 150.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the non-Iraqi prisoners as being in Iraq “temporarily” and urged other countries to “take responsibility and repatriate their citizens in these facilities to face justice.”
The operation coincides with significant developments in Syria, where government forces are taking control of formerly Kurdish-held territories following an agreement to integrate the Kurdish administration into the state. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa opted to miss the World Economic Forum in Davos to oversee these negotiations.
Meanwhile, US envoy Tom Barrack met with SDF leader Mazloum Abdi in Erbil to affirm Washington’s support for the integration agreement. The humanitarian situation remains critical, with the International Organization for Migration reporting that recent clashes have displaced over 134,000 people in northeast Syria.
Iraqi courts have previously handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to individuals convicted of terrorism, including many foreign fighters transferred from Syria. Human rights organizations have raised concerns about the expediency of some of these trials.
