The U.S. military has completed the transfer of thousands of Islamic State group detainees from Syria to Iraq, where they are expected to stand trial in the future, the U.S. Central Command said Friday.
CENTCOM said that the transfer that began on Jan. 21 saw U.S. forces transporting more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody. The prisoners were transferred to Iraq at the request of Baghdad — a move welcomed by the U.S.-led coalition that had for years fought against IS.
Read more…
Source: AP News
Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- UAE: 3 killed in suspected Houthi drone attack in Abu Dhabi
January 17, 2022
A possible drone attack may have sparked explosions on three oil tankers in Abu Dhabi and another fire at an extension of Abu Dhabi International Airport on Monday that killed three people and wounded six, UAE police said. Abu Dhabi police identified the dead as two Indian nationals and one Pakistani. It did not identify the ...
- ‘Everything Living Is Dying’: Environmental Ruin in Modern Iraq
December 21, 2021
As far back as 2005, the United Nations had estimated that Iraq was already littered with several thousand contaminated sites. Five years later, an investigation by The Times, a London-based newspaper, suggested that the U.S. military had generated some 11 million pounds of toxic waste and abandoned it in Iraq. Today, it is easy to ...
- Qatar reinforces its position on the Houthi side of the Yemen war
December 3, 2021
The inclemency that pervades the atmosphere of Yemen’s war is doubly cruel. Not only is it the most serious humanitarian catastrophe since the end of World War II, which led to the creation of the United Nations. It is also a conflict forgotten by the Western world. Not by the world’s most powerful countries, whose interest ...
- New analysis puts more accurate figure on size of last year’s Beirut blast
October 19, 2021
New light has been shed on the size of the explosion in Beirut, Lebanon in August 2020 that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands more. Estimate of the explosive yield of the blast, which resulted from the detonation of thousands of tonnes of improperly stored ammonium nitrate and damaged more than half the ...
- What do we know about Hamas’ drones?
May 26, 2021
In the recent round of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, Israel had to contend with a growing drone threat from the Gaza Strip – not only detecting and mitigating the threats in the field, but on social media, where Hamas has released dramatic videos displaying their drone tactics and tooling. While Israel has previously dealt with ...
- Drones add little to rocket-filled Israel-Palestine skies, but represent growing global threat
May 20, 2021
Beneath the ongoing collision of Israel’s cutting-edge and costly missile defense systems and imprecise but inexpensive Palestinian-built rockets, Hamas has begun using so-called “kamikaze drones” to try penetrating Israeli defenses another way. The Israeli government has claimed that its Iron Dome rocket defense system is effectively blocking most incoming rockets that pose a threat to Israel’s ...
- Canada extends anti-ISIS mission in Middle East by one year
March 30, 2021
The Liberal government has approved a slimmed-down extension of the Canadian military’s contribution to the ongoing fight against the remnants of ISIS. Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan issued a statement Tuesday announcing an extension of the seven-year-old campaign, known as Operation Impact. The international effort to shore up the military capacity of Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon will see ...
- New York Army National Guard bomb disposal experts heading for Middle East
February 13, 2021
Glenville, NY — Eighteen New York Army National Guard Soldiers assigned to the 1108th Company (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) said goodbye to their families during a ceremony held at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Glenville on February 13. The Soldiers departed for Fort Bliss, Texas on Valentin’s Day, February 14. They will train there for 30 ...
- Al-Qaida’s Yemen Leader Appears in Video Despite UN Report of Arrest
February 11, 2021
The leader of Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen appears to be still at large despite a United Nations report which claimed he had been under arrest for months, the SITE Intelligence Group and two local tribal leaders said Thursday after he was seen in a video released by the jihadist group. Khalid Batarfi, who has been the ...
- OPCW probes couldn’t prove chemical use in 2 Syria attacks
October 2, 2020
The global chemical weapons watchdog said Friday that two investigations into alleged attacks in Syria in 2016 and 2018 couldn’t establish that chemicals were used as weapons in either case. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons issued two reports by its Fact-Finding Mission into attacks in Saraqib in the Idlib region on Aug. ...
- New IRA links confirm Hezbollah’s growing terror threat in Europe
September 24, 2020
The latest allegations that senior representatives of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia met with members of a breakaway Irish terrorist group have highlighted the growing extent of the Iranian-backed organisation’s operations in Europe. For decades, Hezbollah’s primary focus has been the Middle East, where the terrorist organisation – working in conjunction with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ...
- Hurras al-Din poses a security challenge in Syria
July 6, 2020
HaD is avowedly loyal to Al-Qaeda and its leadership is dominated by non-Syrian Al-Qaeda veterans. Hurras al-Din (HaD), Arabic for “Guardians of Religion”, are hardcore Al-Qaeda elements who broke away from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the strongest insurgent group in the Idlib enclave. According to counterextremism.com, Hurras al-Din (HaD) was formed on February 27, 2018, by ...
- ISIS Drone Dropping Bomblet On Abrams Tank Is A Sign Of What’s To Come
July 3, 2020
One of the major tactical developments during the war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq has been the deployment of hobbyist and even homemade remote controlled aircraft—often referred to as “drones”—armed with small explosive charges. During the Battle of Mosul especially, Iraqi forces have experienced a threat from aerial bombardment by low-end drones on a ...
- Israel: Islamic Jihad’s killer drones bomb IDF tank
March 11, 2020
Did an Islamic Jihad drone drop a bomb an Israeli tank outside Gaza last year? Islamic Jihad, a violent group based in Hamas-controlled Gaza, claims it does. Others aren’t so sure. The Youtube video shows what appears to be an aerial – or drone’s eye – view of an Israeli Merkava tank in arid terrain characteristic ...
- Disguised Explosive Boat May Be New Threat To Tankers Off Yemen
March 4, 2020
Dramatic photos shared by the Saudi government Wednesday may show a new form of explosive boat developed by the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The pictured boat was one of four involved in an attempted attack on an oil tanker 90 miles off Yemen’s southern coast that failed, according to the Saudi account. While many details have ...