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Sweden Won't Help Citizens Held in ISIS Camps Return, Says FM

A camp housing families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakah province, Syria, April 19, 2023. © Baderkhan Ahmad, AP file photo
A camp housing families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakah province, Syria, April 19, 2023. © Baderkhan Ahmad, AP file photo
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Sweden Won't Help Citizens Held in ISIS Camps Return, Says FM

A camp housing families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakah province, Syria, April 19, 2023. © Baderkhan Ahmad, AP file photo
A camp housing families of members of the ISIS group in Hasakah province, Syria, April 19, 2023. © Baderkhan Ahmad, AP file photo

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said Wednesday that the country would not offer aid to return Swedes that had joined ISIS and were currently held in camps in northeastern Syria.

"The government will not act so that the Swedish citizens and persons with connections to Sweden who are in camps or detention centres in north-eastern Syria are brought to Sweden," Billstrom said in a statement to AFP.

"Sweden has no legal obligation to act for these individuals to be brought to Sweden. This applies to women, children and men," he continued.

The ISIS fall in 2019 in Syria created the problem of what to do with the families of foreign militants captured or killed there and in Iraq.

More than 43,000 Syrians, Iraqis, and foreigners from at least 45 countries are held in the squalid and overcrowded Al-Hol camp in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria.

Billstrom said that the remaining Swedes, had for several years been offered opportunities to return to Sweden, but had "refused again and again."

The minister added that Sweden was facing a deteriorating security situation and it could not rule out that returning adults could pose a security threat upon their return.

Broadcaster TV4 reported that five children with connections to Sweden remained in camps in Syria.

However, Billstrom stressed that "the responsibility for the children lies with their parents, who have chosen to travel to Syria to join IS, one of the world's most cruel terrorist organisations."

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Arab World

Syria’s New Rulers Name Abu Qasra as Defense Minister

Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa sits next to Murhaf Abu Qasra, who according to an official source has been appointed as Defense Minister in Syria's interim government, in Damascus, Syria in this handout image released on December 21, 2024. (Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via Reuters)
Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa sits next to Murhaf Abu Qasra, who according to an official source has been appointed as Defense Minister in Syria's interim government, in Damascus, Syria in this handout image released on December 21, 2024. (Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via Reuters)
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Syria’s New Rulers Name Abu Qasra as Defense Minister

Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa sits next to Murhaf Abu Qasra, who according to an official source has been appointed as Defense Minister in Syria's interim government, in Damascus, Syria in this handout image released on December 21, 2024. (Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via Reuters)
Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa sits next to Murhaf Abu Qasra, who according to an official source has been appointed as Defense Minister in Syria's interim government, in Damascus, Syria in this handout image released on December 21, 2024. (Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via Reuters)

Syria's new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the opposition which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.

Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria's revolution, the source said according to Reuters.

Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed "the form of the military institution in the new Syria" during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.

Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.

Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former opposition factions and officers who defected from Assad's army.

Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.

Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step "comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability".

Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the opposition’s Idlib government, the General Command said.

Sharaa's group was part of al-Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.

Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.

Syrian opposition fighters seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family's decades-long rule.

Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al-Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad's rule in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.