Middle East
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a joint press conference on June 28, 2021. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The ongoing detention of former Islamic State (ISIS) fighters throughout Iraq and Syria is unsustainable, and they should be repatriated and rehabilitated, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday at a summit in Rome.
“There is a need for countries to take action to repatriate foreign fighters that come from those countries, to prosecute them where appropriate [and] to rehabilitate and reintegrate,” Blinken emphasized during a meeting of the global coalition against ISIS to renew international efforts to combat the terrorist group.
“The number of foreign terrorist fighters who are in detention in Syria is significant. The larger group that comprises their family members, women and children is also a significant concern,” Blinken pointed out.
Under 61,000 people, mostly women and children with suspected links to ISIS militants call Al-Hol camp home. Nearly half of the residents are Iraqis.
The US top official emphasized that keeping ten thousand ISIS fighters in Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) detention centers in Syria is “simply untenable”, indicating that a situation like that cannot persist indefinitely.
ISIS seized control of territory across Iraq and Syria in 2014 and was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but it remains a threat in both countries, especially in the border areas where the SDF has carried out several recent military operations.
Humanitarian aid
In addition, the US Secretary of State as well as Italy’s Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio co-sponsored a second conference to improve humanitarian aid crossing borders in Syria.
“We’re also co-sponsoring a second meeting to address the urgent humanitarian crisis in Syria, particularly through broadening cross-border assistance, which is essential to reaching millions of Syrians who are in dire need of food, medicine, covid vaccines [and] other life-saving aid,” Blinken announced.
The United States will provide additional humanitarian assistance to Syrians and the communities that host them, according to Blinken, amounting to $436 million.
“That brings the total US humanitarian assistance in response to the crisis in Syria to nearly $13.5 billion,” he revealed.
On Friday, the special envoy of the United Nations to Syria told the Security Council that the international community needs to work together so aid can be delivered across borders to save lives in Syria.
US airstrikes
Blinken commented on the airstrikes conducted by the US military against Iranian-backed groups on Sunday on the Iraq-Syria border.
“At the president’s direction, U.S. military forces conducted airstrikes against facilities used by Iranian-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region. They targeted facilities used by groups responsible for recent attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq,” he said.
“The president has been very clear throughout that we will act to protect U.S. personnel, and given these ongoing attacks by Iran-backed groups targeting our interests in Iraq, he directed further military action... to disrupt and deter these attacks.”
The airstrikes were meant to send a “clear and unambiguous” deterrent message.
“I think we’ve demonstrated with both actions taken last night and actions taken previously that the president is fully prepared to act, and act appropriately and deliberately to protect US interests, to protect our people, to protect our personnel,” Blinken stated.
US forces have come under repeated attack since Washington's assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a January 2020 airstrike.
Reporting by Alan Barzinji
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