150 IS detainees transferred to Iraq

RAQA, SYRIA:

Europeans were among 150 senior Islamic State group detainees transferred this week by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria to neighbouring Iraq, whose premier urged EU countries to repatriate their nationals.

They were among an estimated 7,000 jihadists due to be moved to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swathes of territory to the advancing Syrian army.

In 2014, IS swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery, but backed by a US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately defeated the jihadists in Syria five years later.

This month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with the Kurds had largely expired, as Syria's new authorities pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF, which agreed to withdraw from areas in the north and east.