Iraq says it has completed an investigation of roughly 5,700 ISIS detainees who were transferred from Syria earlier this year. The ISIS detainees were mostly men who, since 2019, were held in two dozen detention facilities across eastern Syria. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been holding onto them until the Syrian government agreed to integrate the SDF into its army. Once that occurred, the US Central Command initiated a mass transfer of prisoners to Iraq.
Currently, Iraq has reported that it has investigated most of these prisoners. It is unclear how many of them will remain in detention, and how many will go to trial.
By 2019, ISIS was mostly defeated in Syria. At that point, around 50-80,000 ISIS members were detained in Syria by the SDF. Most of these detainees were women and children. Several thousand of these prisoners, however, were men.
A report at Al-Arabiya, which is based on an AFP report, notes that “the cases will now proceed to trial, while more than 450 Syrians will be released and handed over to their country. Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said it concluded ‘the interrogation phase’ of the 5,704 ISIS suspects who were brought from northeast Syria and referred them to trial.”
Some detainees to return to home countries
This matters because some of the ISIS members will return to their home countries, such as Syria, Turkey, etc. Notably, many of the ISIS members held in Syria had come from 60 other countries.
The international community, including around 80 countries, backed the anti-ISIS coalition. However, they did not create a means for ISIS members to be formally charged; there was never an international court of any kind for indicting ISIS members. Instead, they were left in limbo for seven years.
Al-Arabia reported that “the investigations led to identifying several ISIS commanders, including top-ranking figures, who were involved in ‘crimes at the international level,’ according to the council.”
Al-Arabia added that at least six suspects were documented to have been involved in the genocide against the Yazidi minority in Iraq. In 2014, ISIS overran the Yazidi areas of Iraq and began massacring the Yazidis. ISIS also kidnapped thousands of women and children and sold them into slavery. These acts galvanized the international community against ISIS.
Yazidis have yet to receive justice
Unfortunately, the Yazidis have yet to receive justice. Most ISIS members have evaded trial. Even now, many thousands of Yazidis remain missing. Over the last decade, Yazidi women and children have continued to be found in Syria and other places.
The New Region reported that “over 20,000 Iraqis [were] rehabilitated from the Al-Hol camp.” This report comes from Iraq’s own government.
The New Region added: “Iraq’s Migration Ministry on Saturday said that over 20,000 Iraqi nationals have been rehabilitated after returning from Syria’s notorious al-Hol camp. The report also noted that “the Iraqi detainees were transferred to al-Jadaa camp, a major government-run rehabilitation and integration center south of Mosul.”
Over the past year, Iraq has worked hard to return ISIS members to their home countries. Many countries, however, refuse to accept their ISIS members. Australia, for instance, was reluctant to take back women and children who had been in Syria’s Al-Hol camp.