SDF hands over 280 Iraqi, foreign detainees to Iraq

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have handed to Iraq 280 Iraqi and foreign detainees in recent days, Iraq’s military said in a statement on Sunday (Feb. 24), Reuters reported.

An Iraqi military colonel confirmed to Reuters that 130 people were transferred on Sunday, adding to the 150 transferred on Thursday. They included the first known transfers of non-Iraqi detainees to Iraq, but it was unclear if they will remain in Iraqi custody.

There are meant to be more such handovers under an agreement to transfer a group of some 500 detainees held by the SDF in Syria, Iraqi military sources said.

Among the 280 were as many as 14 French citizens and six Arabs of unspecific nationality, according to one military source close to the handover process who commands troops near the Syrian border.

The mayor of the Iraqi border town of Al-Qaim, Ahmed al-Mahallawi, said on Thursday that some families had also been transferred.

ISIS still poses a threat in Iraq and some western officials believe that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, may still be hiding in the area.