BEIRUT (AP) — Recent fighting between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria got close to detention facilities where thousands of Islamic State group members are held.
The U.S. military says that it has started the process of transferring many of them to secure locations in Iraq.
Syrian government forces have taken control of one of the detention facilities where about 9,000 IS members are held in Syria. About 120 inmates fled from the Shaddadeh prison on Monday near the Iraqi border. Syrian authorities say that most of them have been recaptured.
During the battles that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, fought against IS over the past decade, thousands of fighters of different nationalities were captured and have been held in around a dozen prisons in northeast Syria.
The U.S.-backed Syrian forces also captured tens of thousands of mostly women and children linked to IS. Most of them have been held in the sprawling al-Hol camp near Iraq. A smaller group is held in the Roj camp, near where the frontiers of Syria, Turkey and Iraq converge.
Syrian troops are now in full control of al-Hol camp.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the transfer process began on Wednesday, and that 150 IS members have been taken from Syria to “secure locations” in Iraq so far. The statement said that up to 7,000 detainees could be transferred to Iraqi-controlled facilities.
The U.S. move came as Syrian government forces have captured wide areas t …