Iraq News

US urges Europe to repatriate, prosecute ISIS fighters from Syria

The US on Thursday (August 1st) called on European nations to repatriate and put on trial their citizens who went to Syria to fight for the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS), AFP reported.

The appeal, which has been made previously, came as the US Justice Department announced that a 23-year-old Texas man has been indicted in Dallas after traveling to Syria to join ISIS.

"We all have an obligation to keep them from ever returning to the battlefield," Ambassador Nathan Sales, the State Department co-ordinator for counterterrorism, said of captured ISIS fighters.

"The most effective way to do that is for countries of origin to take back their citizens and prosecute them for crimes they have committed," Sales said.

"We would like to see more Western European countries follow suit," he said. "No one should expect the US to solve that problem for them."

US Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were currently holding more than 10,000 extremists, including 8,000 from Iraq and Syria and 2,000 foreigners from more than 50 countries.

Several hundred of them are Europeans.

There also are some 70,000 wives and children of extremists, including 10,000 who are associated with the 2,000 foreign fighters, Jeffrey said.

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