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Syria’s Kurds Repatriate 20 Russian Orphans of ISIS Families

Russian orphans born to parents linked to ISIS wait in a bus before Syrian Kurdish authorities hand them over to a Russian delegation for repatriation. (AFP)
Russian orphans born to parents linked to ISIS wait in a bus before Syrian Kurdish authorities hand them over to a Russian delegation for repatriation. (AFP)
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Syria’s Kurds Repatriate 20 Russian Orphans of ISIS Families

Russian orphans born to parents linked to ISIS wait in a bus before Syrian Kurdish authorities hand them over to a Russian delegation for repatriation. (AFP)
Russian orphans born to parents linked to ISIS wait in a bus before Syrian Kurdish authorities hand them over to a Russian delegation for repatriation. (AFP)

Syria’s Kurds on Saturday handed over 20 orphaned children born to parents linked to the ISIS group to a Russian delegation for repatriation.

Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria hold thousands of foreigners with alleged ties to the extremist group in their custody, after spearheading a US-backed battle against ISIS that seized the last patch of their territory in early 2019.

Alleged foreign fighters are held in jails, while women and children with ties to the group live in camps for the displaced in northeast Syria.

“Twenty Russian children who were in the Roj camp were handed over,” the Kurdish authorities said in a statement.

“They are aged three to 16 years old, and all are orphans in good health.”

It said the latest repatriations brought to 205 people those sent home to Russia so far.

In April, 34 orphans returned to Russia from the Kurdish-held region.

Syria’s Kurds have repeatedly urged the international community to repatriate foreign nationals held in crowded camps.

But their calls have largely fallen on deaf ears with only limited numbers, mostly children, allowed to return home until now.

The latest repatriations come after the International Committee of the Red Cross this week sounded the alarm over the Kurdish authorities holding “hundreds of children” in adult prisons.

Kurdish foreign affairs official Abdelkarim Omar on Friday urged international help to set up rehabilitation centers for minors in the region, which so far only has one such re-education facility and another under preparation.

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Borrell: Israel Committing ‘Genocide’ in Gaza

Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell collects the Charles V European award (EPA)
Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell collects the Charles V European award (EPA)
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Borrell: Israel Committing ‘Genocide’ in Gaza

Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell collects the Charles V European award (EPA)
Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell collects the Charles V European award (EPA)

The former EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has launched a blistering attack on Israel, accusing its government of committing genocide in Gaza and “carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination.”

According to The Guardian newspaper, Borrell also criticized the bloc’s failure to use all the means at its disposal to influence Israel, saying expressions of regret were simply not enough.

As he collected the Charles V European award in front of dignitaries including King Felipe in south-west Spain on Friday, the former EU chief said the horrors Israel had suffered in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 could not justify the horrors it had subsequently inflicted on Gaza.

“We’re facing the largest ethnic cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination once all the millions of tons of rubble have been cleared from Gaza and the Palestinians have died or gone away,” he said in a characteristically direct speech.

Last February, US President Donald Trump suggested that nearly two million Palestinians should be relocated from battle-leveled Gaza to new homes elsewhere so that the US could send troops to the Strip, take ownership and build the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

“You build really good quality housing, like a beautiful town, like some place where they can live and not die, because Gaza is a guarantee that they’re going to end up dying,” Trump told reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House.

Borrell accused Israel of violating all the rules of conflict and of using the starvation of Gaza’s civilian population as a “weapon of war.”

“Three times more explosive power has been dropped on Gaza than was used in the Hiroshima bomb,” he said.

“And for months now, nothing has been getting into Gaza. Nothing: no water, no food, no electricity, no fuel, no medical services. That’s what Netanyahu’s ministers have said and it’s what they’ve done.”

He added: “We all know what’s going on there, and we’ve all heard the objectives stated by Netanyahu’s ministers, which are clear declarations of genocidal intent. Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide.”