Over 2,200 ISIS detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria: Iraqi official

By AFP 7 February 2026, 6:09 pm

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US military vehicles move along a road in a convoy transporting Islamic State group detainees being transferred to Iraq from Syria, on the outskirts of Qahtaniyah in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province on February 7, 2026. (Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP)

Iraq has so far received 2,225 Islamic State group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official tells AFP.

They are among up to 7,000 ISIS detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at “ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities.”

Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF’s role in confronting ISIS had come to an end.

Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister’s office, tells AFP that “Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition,” which Washington has led since 2014 to fight ISIS.

He says they are being held in “strict, regular detention centers.”

A Kurdish military source confirms to AFP the “continued transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition.”