Kurdish Fighters Discuss Releasing Almost 3,200 ISIS Prisoners

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — America’s Kurdish allies in Syria are discussing the release of 3,200 Islamic State prisoners, a prominent monitoring group and a Western official of the anti-Islamic State coalition said on Thursday, a day after President Trump ordered the withdrawal of all American troops from the country.

Top officials of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led and American-supported militia fighting the Islamic State in eastern Syria, met on Wednesday to discuss the option of releasing about 1,100 Islamic State fighters and 2,080 relatives of the group’s members, according to Rami Abdul Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory on Human Rights.

Mostapha Bali, the spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, or S.D.F., denied that there had been any discussion of releasing prisoners from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. “Any news coming from such sources is not reliable and is not coming from us,” he said.

But a Western official from the United States-led coalition fighting in Syria, which includes more than a dozen countries, confirmed that such discussions had taken place.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/world/middleeast/isis-syria-prisoner-release-trump.html

[Eugene]

1. That's a move from the Donald Trump Playbook.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Unless they get funding for the wall. NT

[The Mouth]

3. release them from 20,000 feet

Without a parachute.

[HopeAgain]

4. If we abandon the Kurds...

can we really blame them for doing this?

[ProudLib72]

7. Nope, we cannot

We helped round them up, and now we are leaving the Kurds to deal with them. That must look like a golden opportunity for ISIS to attack and recover its imprisoned soldiers. I really see no good option here.

[maxsolomon]

5. give them back to europe - or wherever they're from

if they're Syrian or Iraqi, they might prefer Kurdish custody.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. You see, Donald, actions have consequences.

[angrychair]

8. Exactly

US forces are likely the only thing keeping Turkey from bombing and shelling them into oblivion. Or Syrian forces doing the same to push them into Turkey to keep the conflict out of Syria. Turkey is so determined to attack the Kurds they would risk a shooting war between them and Syria or even Russia to do it.
Once they leave they are literally dead if they stay. They sure as hell are not going to have the resources to manage 3200 prisoners.

It’s just logical they would dump them.

Trump’s stupidity has consequences.

[Turbineguy]

9. They'll be released with instructions

to say nice things about Trump who will then let them settle in the U.S.

[keithbvadu2]

10. settle in the U.S. - to work in Trump properties so Donald does not have to pay Americans.

to work in Trump properties so Donald does not have to pay Americans.

[SunSeeker]

11. What's to stop the Kurds from partnering with ISIS to fight Asad and Erdogan?