Trump Urges European States To 'Take Back' From Syria, Put On Trial Over 800 IS Militants

(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Trump Urges European States to 'Take Back' From Syria, Put on Trial Over 800 IS Militants

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th February, 2019) US President Donald Trump called on European countries, particularly the United Kingdom, France and Germany, to "take back" more than 800 militants of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) and bring them to justice.

Thousands of fighters come to Syria from Europe to fight in IS ranks. On Friday, Trump promised to make "great announcements" concerning Syria and the Islamic State within 24 hours.

"The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial," Trump wrote on Twitter.

The Islamic State is about to fall, he added, referring to the terrorist group as "the Caliphate."

"The U.S. does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go," Trump said.

Earlier in the day, a spokesman for US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) told Sputnik that remaining IS militants were entrenched in a small area of Baghouz, the last IS-held village in Syria.

The US-led coalition of more than 70 countries is conducting military operations against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The coalition's operations in Iraq are conducted in cooperation with the Iraqi government, but those in Syria are not authorized by the Syrian government or the UN Security Council.

On December 19, Trump announced that the Islamic State had been defeated in Syria and said the United States would pull all troops from that country, without specifying the deadlines for such a withdrawal. On February 8, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources in the US administration, that all US forces would be withdrawn from Syria by the end of April.