Concern over safety and justice as U.S. moves 7,000 ISIS suspects to Iraq

Iraq says it's ready to put thousands of ISIS suspects transferred by the U.S. from Syria on trial. Can it really offer "fair and decisive" justice?

Updated on: February 5, 2026 / 12:54 PM EST / CBS News

Erbil, Iraq — The U.S. military is in the process of transferring nearly 7,000 ISIS suspects from prisons and jails in northeast Syria to detention facilities across the border into Iraq. The operation comes amid concerns over security, following a mass escape from at least one prison in Syria, but it is also raising concern over the detainees' fate.

An Iraqi security source told CBS News that as of Thursday, nearly 2,000 detainees had been transferred into the country.

Iraq has vowed to put the prisoners on trial, and many could face terrorism charges in an opaque justice system that, just seven years ago, saw alleged ISIS militants, including European nationals, convicted and sentenced to death.

At the end of January, Syria's Ministry of Defense announced a 15 day extension of a ceasefire that largely ended clashes between government troops and Kurdish forces in the country's northeast. Those clashes had led to chaos around prisons holding ISIS detainees in the region long controlled by the U.S.-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).