U.S. Slows transfer of ISIS detainees to Iraq

Sources told Reuters that the U.S. military’s transfer of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq has slowed this week, following Baghdad’s request to reduce the pace to allow negotiations with other countries and prepare additional facilities.

30 January, 2026 22:43

NEWS DESK

The U.S. military announced on 21 January that it had begun moving detainees. The United States expected to transfer up to 7,000 fighters to Iraq within days. However, after more than a week, only about 500 have been transferred, according to two Iraqi judicial officials, two Iraqi security officials, and three diplomats, some from countries of origin of the detainees.

An Iraqi Foreign Ministry official confirmed that the total number transferred so far does not exceed 500.

According to Iraqi officials and a Western diplomat, Baghdad requested the slowdown to allow time for negotiations with other countries regarding the repatriation of their citizens and to prepare additional facilities to host ISIS fighters.

Of those transferred so far, about 130 are Iraqis and 400 are foreigners.

This slowdown, not previously announced, is linked to reservations by Western governments about repatriating their citizens who joined ISIS, which controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq in 2014.

ANHA