PARIS: France repatriated 15 women and 32 children held in jihadist prison camps in northeastern Syria, the French foreign ministry said Tuesday.
“The minors were handed over to the services in charge of child assistance and will be subject to medical and social monitoring,” the ministry said in a statement.
It added that “the adults have been handed over to the competent judicial authorities.”
Over the past decade, thousands of extremists in Europe traveled to Syria to become fighters with the Daesh group, often taking their families to live in the self-declared “caliphate” it set up in territory seized in Iraq and Syria.
Since the “caliphate” fell in 2019, the return of family members of fighters who were captured or killed has been a thorny issue for European countries.
The return announced Tuesday — which was committed due to pressure from humanitarian organizations — is France’s third large-scale repatriation.
The previous one was in October last year, when Paris repatriated 15 women and 40 children, and in July, when 16 mothers and 35 minors were returned.
The women and children repatriated Tuesday were in the Roj camp in northeast Syria under Kurdish administration, located about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Iraqi and Turkish borders.
The French authorities thanked “the local administration in northeastern Syria for its cooperation, which made this operation possible.”
Tuesday’s operation comes shortly after the UN Committee against Torture condemned France for failing to repatriate French nationals from prison camps in northeastern Syria.
France repatriates 15 women, 32 children from Syrian jihadist camps
https://arab.news/7jmp3
France repatriates 15 women, 32 children from Syrian jihadist camps
- Minors handed over to services in charge of child assistance
- Adults handed over to competent judicial authorities
Russia condemns Qaddafi’s son killing, wants ‘thorough investigation’
- In 2021, prosecutors in Libya issued an arrest warrant for Seif Al-Islam over suspected ties to the Russian mercenary Wagner group, according to the BBC
MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday condemned the killing of Seif Al-Islam Qaddafi, son of slain Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi, and called for a thorough probe into his death.
“We strongly condemn this crime. We hope a thorough investigation will be conducted and the perpetrators will be brought to justice,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
A lawyer who had been representing Seif Al-Islam told AFP the ex-leader’s son was killed by four unidentified attackers who stormed his house on Tuesday.
Libyan prosecutors said Wednesday they were investigating the killing and that forensic experts had been dispatched to Zintan in northwest Libya, where he was shot dead.
The 53-year-old had been seen by some as a potential successor to his father, who was toppled and killed in 2011 after a NATO-led military intervention.
In 2021, prosecutors in Libya issued an arrest warrant for Seif Al-Islam over suspected ties to the Russian mercenary Wagner group, according to the BBC. Wagner has since been disbanded and replaced with the state-backed Africa Corps.
He was suspected of having strong links with Russia.
