Syrian Kurds hail Trump's call for repatriation of IS fighters

A Kurdish-led faction that has played a key role infighting Islamic State in Syria has welcomed a call by US PresidentDonald Trump for Europe to take in hundreds of Islamic State fighterscaptured in the war-torn country.Hundreds of fighters from dozens of countries are in the custody ofthe Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a militia allied with a US-ledmilitary coalition now fighting to dislodge Islamic State fromits last bastion in eastern Syria."We consider the US president's remark positive," Abdel-Karim Omar,an SDF foreign relations official, told dpa on Sunday."As we faced terrorism and Daesh [Islamic State] in coordinationwith the international alliance, the issue of foreign jihadists,their children and women should also be handled in coordination withthe international community. It is a burden which we cannotundertake on our own," he added.On Saturday, Trump threatened that the US would be forced to releaseforeign jihadists captured in Syria if their home countries did nottake them."The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and otherEuropean allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we capturedin Syria and put them on trial," he wrote in a flurry of tweets. "The US does not want to watch as these ISIS [Islamic State] fighterspermeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go," he said.The German government responded to the comments on Sunday by sayingthat, while it was aware of German citizens in captivity in northernSyria, it was unable to take responsibility for them due to theshuttering of the German embassy in Damascus.The Foreign Ministry said it was, however, examining possible optionsto enable German citizens to leave Syria, especially in cases withhumanitarian grounds.Danish politicians also reacted coolly to Trump's call to action."These are some of the most dangerous people on earth, and we shouldnot have them back," said Michael Aastrup Jensen, foreign affairsspokesman for Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen's centre-rightLiberals. "The fact that we are in this jam is Trump's fault since he chose topull the US forces out of Syria before stability was created," headded, according to news agency Ritzau.The SDF foreign relations official did not give specific figuresabout the number of Islamic State foreign fighters in SDF hands, butsaid their numbers were "in the hundreds."A spokeswoman for the German Interior Ministry said that since 2013around 1,050 people had travelled from Germany to join terroristgroups Syria and Iraq. Around a third of these people had alreadyreturned to Germany, she said.About 270 women and children from Germany or children of Germanparents born there are still in region, and 75 per cent of thechildren are under the age of three, according to the spokeswoman.French Defence Minister Florence Parly warned against abandoningKurdish forces in Syria, writing in a column for the Le Parisiennewspaper that it was Europe's "duty" to help the SDF after thewithdrawal of US troops.Trump surprised allies when he announced the withdrawal of 2,000 UStroops from Syria in December, saying the mission of defeatingIslamic State had been achieved.His decision drew criticism from SDF officials, who warned that thepull-out would lead to Islamic State's resurgence.Apparently referring to US-allied Syrian Kurdish insurgents, SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad said in Damascus on Sunday: "We tell thegroups, which serve as agents to the Americans: The Americans willnot protect you, and you will be a tool for bargaining in theirhands." He did not name any groups."Only the Syrian Arab Army can defend you," al-Assad added, accordingto the state news agency SANA.In recent months, al-Assad's forces, supported by Russia, haveregained a lot of territory in different parts of the country fromWest-backed rebels and Islamist militants.Al-Assad on Sunday accused unnamed countries of hampering the homereturn of Syrian refugees, describing their alleged actions as "anattempt by the states, which support terrorism, to condemn the Syrianstate."Syria's crisis began in March 2011 with peaceful anti-governmentdemonstrations that were brutally quelled by al-Assad's forces.The conflict soon spiralled into a multi-sided civil war that hasclaimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced about halfof Syria's pre-war population of 22 million.