BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday. The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them. As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said. Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children. |
Retrial underway for exLloyd Omdahl, a former North Dakota lieutenant governor and newspaper columnist, dies at 93Mainland urges Taiwan to return to 1992 Consensus to resume dialogue2 killed in vessel collision in waters off east ChinaRoyals catcher Salvador Perez sidelined by mild groin strainNASA confirms mystery object that crashed through roof of Florida home came from space stationChinese organization to boost recycling of renewable resourcesIdaho can enforce ban on genderChicago White Sox activate slugger Eloy Jiménez from the 10New rules to help improve flow of data