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On March 21, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced in an official statement that it had released 15 former fighters of ISIS. According to the SDF, all the former ISIS members who were released are Syrians from the governorates of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor.
Hussein Al-Barges, a member of the SDF’s Raqqa Civil Council, said that the former ISIS fighters had been “tricked” by the terrorist organization. “Their hands were not stained with Syrian blood,” he added.
The SDF’s media center also revealed that the initiative to release those former ISIS fighters was presented by Omar Alloush, a member of the relations office in he Syrian Democratic Council (SDC). Alloush was assassinated on March 15.
The US-backed forces have released hundreds of ISIS fighters who surrendered to it or have been captured in action. On January alone, the SDF released over 400 former fighters of ISIS, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
A report of the Russian center for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria said that the US-led coalition is using refugee camps controlled by the SDF in al-Hasakah governorate as a base for training former fighters of ISIS who have been released by the SDF.
Local observers believe that these fighters pose a serious security threat in eastern Syria, especially that ISIS cells are still active at the Syrian-Iraqi border.
