Secret operation by private jet: government takes ISIS prisoners back from northern Syria

For the first time, this weekend the federal government is bringing captured German ISIS members from northern Syria back to Germany.

The Federal Foreign Office chartered a plane for the long-planned return transport of three women and their children as well as several orphans from Kurdish camps. According to information from BILD, the three adults are Leonora M. (21) from Sangerhausen, Merve A. (24) from Hamburg and Yasmin A. from Bonn.

The federal government had previously refused to repatriate captured Germans with reference to the political situation in Syria, having only repatriated three orphans and one seriously ill toddler in the summer of 2019. A few weeks later, through American mediation, a German citizen and her children were handed over to the Foreign Office and brought back.

The current repatriation was actively pursued by the federal government and had been planned for a long time, but had been delayed due to the Corona pandemic and negotiations with the Kurdish side. According to information from BILD, there are still around seventy adult Germans in Kurdish captivity, plus 150 children of German parents.

Almost two dozen Germans have fled captivity in northern Syria since last year, and ten of them returned to Germany.