U.S. military is taking custody of two British men accused of involvement in Islamic State killings
Source: Washington Post
The U.S. military is taking custody of several dozen high-value Islamic State detainees, including two British men accused of involvement in the militant group’s summary executions of American and other Western hostages. The action is designed to prevent their escape or release from camps in Syria, where they have been guarded by Kurdish forces now under threat from Turkey’s incursion, according to U.S. officials.
The move, a rare instance in which the United States has taken direct responsibility for Islamic State prisoners in Iraq and Syria, comes as U.S. officials scramble to ensure that Ankara’s unfolding military operation does not permit the Islamic State to regain strength.
The roughly 40 individuals being taken into U.S. custody, all considered important Islamic State figures, previously had been held in a constellation of small prisons in northeast Syria, run by Syrian Kurdish forces who have been the Pentagon’s primary partner against the Islamic State in Syria. The Kurds are now pulling guards from those facilities to confront the unfolding Turkish assault.
The British pair — part of a group of four British militants dubbed the “Beatles” by their hostages — were being detained with the goal of putting them on trial in the United States, said a senior U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. That official said the two men — Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh — had been taken to Iraq; other officials said recent administration discussions about the fate of those prisoners had examined the possibility of bringing them to Iraq. It was not clear whether that had occurred or whether they had been taken somewhere else.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-military-is-taking-custody-of-two-british-men-accused-of-involvement-in-islamic-state-killings-of-american-hostages/2019/10/09/a5d8971a-e946-11e9-9c6d-436a0df4f31d_story.html?wpisrc=al_news__alert-world--alert-national&wpmk=1
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