Iraq to prosecute IS detainees as Damascus, SDF accuse each other of truce breaches

The Iraqi judiciary on Thursday announced it would launch legal proceedings against Islamic State [IS] group detainees transferred from Syria to Iraq as part of a US operation.

"The Iraqi judiciary will begin standard legal proceedings against the defendants who are received and placed in the relevant correctional institutions," the Supreme Judicial Council said.

The announcement follows the US military saying on Wednesday it had launched an operation to move 7,000 IS prisoners from Syria to Iraq, as Syrian government forces moved on facilities long held by Kurdish-led forces in Syria.

Damascus' takeover of the al-Hol camp followed talks on Sunday between President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) leader Mazloub Abdi, in which the two agreed that the government would take over responsibility for IS prisoners.

Al-Hol is the largest camp for suspected IS members established by Kurdish-led forces after they took control of swathes of Syria with coalition backing.

Another camp, al-Roj, is still under Kurdish control in eastern Hasakeh province.

On Thursday, the fragile ceasefire between Damascus and the SDF continued to hold, despite the two sides trading accusations of breaking the agreement.

The Syrian Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday evening that 11 soldiers had been killed and more than 25 others wounded by SDF attacks on army positions. The casualties occurred in al-Ya'rubiyah, Sarrin, and Jabal Abdul Aziz.

Among those killed were seven soldiers who came under attack after discovering an arms factory, the ministry said.

"Army forces found a factory for producing explosive devices and drone munitions" in Hasakeh province near a border crossing with Iraq, the ministry said, adding that as government forces began securing the site, the SDF "targeted it with a suicide drone, leading to an explosion and the death of seven soldiers", with 20 others wounded.

For their part, the SDF said that government loyalist factions had continued attacks on the Jazeera and Kobani (Ayn al-Arab) regions, and urged "the guarantor states and the international community to assume their responsibilities and monitor these violations to ensure the protection of civilians and maintain stability in the region".

With the government having swept through areas of the northeast formerly held by the SDF, attention has now turned to Hasakah, where fighters from the Kurdish-led group have retreated to from the countryside of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.

The Syrian army has reached the outskirts of Hasakah city, the provincial capital, but has halted its advance as part of the ceasefire agreement. Efforts are underway to reach a political solution over the fate of the province.

The SDF is demanding that it retain control of Hasakah, while the government appears determined to take control of the entirety of Syria, without conceding conditions that could pave the way for a division of the country.

Hasakah has been under the control of the Kurdish People's Defence Units (YPG) - a US-backed group which forms the bulk of the SDF.

Prior to the outbreak of Syria's civil war in 2011, Hasakah accounted for around 65 percent of the country's wheat output, and is also home to several key oil fields.