10 Thousand Ex-ISIS Soldiers Are Still In Syria, US Secretary Of State: Send Them Home!

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (State Department/Ron Przysucha)

JAKARTA - United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday some 10.000 former ISIS soldiers were still in camps run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). He called this situation untenable.

Speaking at the opening of a meeting in Rome to renew international efforts to fight the Islamic State terrorist group, Blinken said Washington continues to urge countries, including the 78 member states of the coalition against ISIS, to take back their citizens who have joined the group.

"This situation is completely untenable. It cannot last indefinitely. The United States continues to urge countries of origin, including coalition partners, to repatriate, rehabilitate and, if possible, prosecute their citizens", Blinken said, cited from Reuters, Tuesday, June 29.

Antony Blinken commended several Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and the Balkan countries for repatriating some of their citizens. However, a senior State Department official said last Monday, during the conference no new country had made a commitment to take back their nationals.

Cited from VOA, Blinken said there was a surge in ISIS activity outside Iraq and Syria, for example in the Sahel, Mozambique, and the Horn of Africa. He also called for the global coalition to establish a special mechanism to deal with the ISIS threat from Africa.

"Together we must remain committed to achieving the goal of stabilization, as is the case with military campaigns that result in victories on the battlefield", Blinken said.

For information, the 77 countries that are members of the global coalition against ISIS held a meeting in Rome, Italy, Monday, June 28 yesterday. The meeting was chaired by Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken.