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IS Detainees in Syria a 'Ticking Time Bomb,' State Department Official Says

Reuters

   Some 10,000 Islamic State detainees held in prisons in northeastern
   Syria present a major security risk, a senior State Department official
   said Tuesday, urging countries to take back their citizens who joined
   the group and were detained.

   "It's a ticking time bomb to simply have the better part of 10,000
   detainees, many of them foreign fighters," the official told reporters
   in a conference call.

   Islamic State has lost almost all of its territory in Iraq and Syria.
   Its former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. raid last
   month, but IS remains a security threat in Syria and beyond.

   Allies have been worried that Islamic State militants could escape as a
   result of Turkey's assault against Syrian Kurdish militia fighters who
   have been holding thousands of the group's fighters and tens of
   thousands of their family members.

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