Syrian Kurdish officials hand over 50 women and children linked to Islamic State group to Tajikistan

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Kurdish-led authorities in northeastern Syria have handed over 50 women and children, family members of militants from the Islamic State group, to a delegation from Tajikistan that is repatriating them back home. The Syrian Kurdish authorities said the women and children are all citizens of Tajikistan and were handed over on Thursday to a delegation headed by the Tajik ambassador to Kuwait. After IS militants declared their caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in June 2014, thousands of foreigners, including hundreds from Tajikistan, came to Syria to join IS and live with their families in the so-called caliphate. After IS was defeated, the militants’ family members were held in al-Hol camp in Syria.