Kurdistan security says it facilitated repatriation of 2 boys to Saudi from Syria

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The office of Kurdistan Region Counter-Terrorism (KRCT) on Tuesday dismissed a report from Al Arabiya TV about the extradition of two Saudi boys by Turkey to Saudi Arabia, saying the whole process took place in the Kurdistan Region.

This matter "has nothing to do with Turkey as claimed by the Al Arabiya channel,” a KRCT statement posted on Facebook read on Tuesday. 

The two children had been taken to Syria by their father who joined the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014, explained the KRCT. 

"The Al Arabiya satellite channel reported on March 31 on the extradition of two Saudi children to their country who had been taken to the Islamic State by their father in Syria, adding that Saudi security forces were able to repatriate them to Saudi through Turkey,” the statement added. 

Other Saudi media also reported the boys were extradited from Turkey.

The KRCT, which reports to the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) within the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), stated the father had entered Syria through Turkey nearly five years ago.

"Two teens … had gone to Turkey for tourism with their father in July 2014. Their father later had taken them to Syria joining the Islamic State organization. After a month, their father was killed fighting for Daesh…” the KRCT added.

It said the boys — A. Nasir Abdullah, age 15, and A. Nasir Abdullah, age 12 — “were adopted by an elderly man.”

“On March 26, 2019, the two teens arrived in the Kurdistan Region [on the western] border crossing of Fish Khabour .They were received by the General Directorate for the Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism and later handed over to the Saudi Consulate General in Erbil. They were eventually extradited to their country,” the statement detailed.

The Saudi Embassy in Baghdad was not available for comment.

The KRSC reiterated that the process of "extraditing" the two teens has taken place in the Kurdistan Region with the help of the counter-terror force.

The KRCT has worked with the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS through the conflict. Saudi Arabia and Iraq are members of the coalition, but Turkey is not.

In Syria, the coalition has backed the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who have thousands of foreign ISIS fighters and their families in custody. With the liberation of the last ISIS bastion east of the Euphrates of al-Baghouz last week, al-Hol camp is overwhelmed.

The SDF has called on coalition partners to repatriate suspected ISIS members and their families because they lack the ability to shelter and try the ISIS suspects in court.