Their home countries don’t want them and holding trials in Syria isn’t an option: now suspected foreign jihadists could end up facing tough justice over the border in Iraq. As the final shred of the once-sprawling jihadist “caliphate” crumbles in eastern Syria, Kurdish-led forces backed by the US have captured hundreds more diehard foreign fighters. The American military — which spearheads an international coalition fighting IS — has in the past shown itself willing to hand those captured in Syria to the authorities in Iraq.
