Kurdish authorities say they won’t release ISIS detainees

Kurdish forces say they will not release European-born ISIS fighters who were captured in Syria by U.S.-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), despite President Trump’s threats to do so if European countries do not repatriate the captured militants.

Officials with the SDF told Reuters that they will not willingly release the ISIS fighters back into Syria, but that they worry about the future of the camps holding hundreds of ISIS fighters and their families if U.S. forces withdraw from the region.

{mosads}Trump previously warned that the U.S. “will be forced to release” captured ISIS fighters in Syria once a withdrawal of American forces is complete if European nations do not repatriate the militants and their families, a process that several European countries have been reluctant to take part in.

“The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them,” he tweeted on Saturday.

The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them……..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2019

Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, responded to the president on Monday, according to Reuters, calling the solution to the problem of hundreds of captured ISIS fighters not so simple.

“It is clearly not as easy as what has been put forward in the United States,” Maas said on Monday, Reuters reported. “These people could only then come to Germany if we can ensure they are immediately put in custody. It’s not clear to me how all that can be guaranteed.”