Foreign fighters burden militia

BEIRUT — The Syrian Kurdish militia partnering with the U.S.-led coalition to fight Islamic State militants said Monday that it is holding a “huge number” of foreign fighters in Syria and none of their home countries want them back.

The head of the People’s Defense Units, or the YPG, Sipan Hemo, speaking to reporters in a conference call Monday, said more than half of those detained in the battle against Islamic State in Syria are foreign fighters from all over the world.

The future of those militants remains unclear and the process for bringing them to justice unsettled amid a debate, mostly in Europe, about whether they should be allowed to return home.

Hemo provided no figure for the number of detainees captured by his forces in Syria but added it was a burden to keep them. “We suffer from the large number of Daesh detainees that we have now,” Hemo said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

Hemo said there is a “huge” number of Islamic State foreign fighters and administrators. Most of them are from Russia, Europe and Arab countries, he said.

Hemo said foreign governments have been asked to take their nationals to be tried at home. “Up until now, no one wants to take them back or to try them,” he said.

For its part, the U.S. is urging allied nations to help deal with the growing number of detainees, saying they should be turned over to face justice in their home countries.