Some 10,000 IS detainees in Syria, a security threat

Turkish military operation in northeastern Syria (AFP Photo)

Around 10,000 Islamic State detainees and their families in nearby camps in northeastern Syria present a big security risk, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday, even though the U.S.-allied Kurdish militia was fully capable of keeping them secure.

"It's not a particularly secure situation," the official told reporters in a conference call. "It’s a ticking time bomb to simply have the better part of 10,000 detainees, many of them foreign fighters," he said and repeated Washington's stance that they should be repatriated to their countries.

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