U.S.-backed YPG/PKK set nearly 300 Daesh terrorists free in Syria
Hundreds of members of bloody-minded Daesh terror group have been released by U.S. backed YPG/PKK in northern region of conflict-ravaged Syria. PKK's Syrian branch set free Daesh militanst on pretext of having no Syrian blood on their hands, according to a written statement published by U.S.-backed YPG/PKK. Releasing them is a gesture of "cooperation, fraternity and clemency," said the statement posted on the website of the US-backed, YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
- World
- AFP
- Published Date: 01:01 | 03 March 2019
- Modified Date: 01:10 | 03 March 2019
Nearly 300 Syrians suspected of belonging to the Daesh terror group have been freed because they have "no blood on their hands", YPG/PKK militants who were holding them said.
Their release was announced late Saturday by the U.S.-backed YPG/PKK, which said in a statement that 283 Syrians had been set free.
Tribal chiefs and other local officials had lobbied for their release.
The statement said they were men who "have no Syrian blood on their hands", suggesting that they did not take part in any fighting.
"They had lost their way... violated the traditions of the Syrian society and the law, and some of them had been deceived... but they remain our Syrian children," it said.
Releasing them is a gesture of "cooperation, fraternity and clemency," said the statement posted on the website of the US-backed, YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The prisoners were released in several areas of northern Syria held by Kurds, including the city of Raqa, which was the de facto Syrian capital of the Daesh "caliphate", the statement added.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said it was not the first release of Daesh-linked prisoners by the YPG, but the number was particularly large this time.
The SDF are holding hundreds of alleged foreign Daesh terrorists, as well as women and children related to suspected Daesh members.