Shafaq News- Baghdad

More than 500 suspected ISIS members transferred from Syrian prisons to Iraq have undergone preliminary interrogation by the First Al-Karkh Investigative Court, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council reported on Monday.

According to a statement from the council’s media office, authorities identified 157 suspects under the age of 18 and decided to refer their case files to the Al-Karkh Juvenile Investigative Court, while placing them in juvenile rehabilitation centers to ensure their treatment aligns with applicable legal and humanitarian standards.

The transfers followed security tensions in northeastern Syria between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and authorities in Damascus that affected detention facilities holding suspected ISIS members, prompting US Central Command to relocate detainees to prisons under Iraqi authority as part of a 23-day operation thatconcludedon February 12. In total, Iraq has taken custody of 5,704 ISIS detainees, representing 66 nationalities, with Syrian nationals constituting the largest group of foreign detainees at 3,544 inmates.

Read more: How eastern Syria could reignite a cross-border threat with Iraq