Suspected ISIS members from dozens of nations including Canada have been moved out of Syria to prisons in Iraq, an official confirmed on Friday.
Iraq’s judiciary announced that greater than 5,700 detainees had been transferred into its custody and that they were residents of 61 countries, including Canada.
While greater than half are Syrians, the National Center for International Judicial Cooperation listed Canada among the many “most outstanding foreign nationalities.”
The others included residents of Germany, Russia, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, South Africa, Recent Zealand and the UK.
The statement didn’t specify what number of Canadians were sent to Iraq, nor discover them by name. Global Affairs Canada said only that it was monitoring the situation.
But Global News has identified at the very least five Canadian men who were being held in Syria prior to the transfer, including a self-admitted ISIS sniper from Mississauga, Ont.
Dozens of extremists left Canada to affix ISIS. While most were killed, Kurdish fighters took several into custody throughout the final stages of the conflict in 2019.
The federal government flew the ladies and kids back to Canada in 2022 and 2023, but left the lads within the custody of the Kurdish forces.
They were detained in makeshift prisons in northeast Syria, a region that was controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
U.S. military vehicles escort passenger buses transporting Islamic State detainees from northeastern Syria into Iraq. Feb. 8, 2026. (Credit Image: © Stringer/Xinhua via ZUMA Press).
But last month, the USA began moving the detainees to Iraq as Syrian government forces and jihadist groups began pushing into Kurdish-held areas.
The transfer wound down on Thursday, with almost 6,000 ISIS suspects having been transported across the border to prisons in Iraq.
The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council has said they’d be investigated and placed on trial in Iraq.
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The council said in a press release that it had jurisdiction over all of the detainees, “no matter their nationality or position” in ISIS.
But Iraq also urged other countries to do their part and said it was unacceptable that some countries refused to repatriate their residents.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged “countries to take responsibility and repatriate their residents in these facilities to face justice.”
Muhammad Ali left Toronto in 2014 to affix ISIS and was captured by Kurdish forces as he tried to flee.
Global News
The Canadians captured in Syria included Muhammad Ali, who joined ISIS in 2014 and used social media to incite terrorist attacks in Canada.
In an interview with Global News after he was captured in 2018, the Mississauga, Ont. resident admitted he was a part of an ISIS sniper team.
Also held by the Kurds were residents of Edmonton, Windsor and Montreal, in addition to Jack Letts, a Briton who has never lived in Canada but obtained citizenship through his father.
A sixth Canadian, Mohammed Khalifa, was taken out of Syria by the USA and flown to Washington, D.C., in 2021 to face trial for terrorism.
The Toronto resident was sentenced to life for making ISIS propaganda videos during which he was shown executing prisoners with a handgun.
Iraqi security forces lead suspected Islamic State militants for questioning after they were transferred from Syria to Iraq, at Al-Karkh Central Prison in Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban).
Iraq has already put tens of hundreds of suspected ISIS members through prosecutions which have been criticized by human rights groups.
Human Rights Watch said the trials relied on confessions, despite torture allegations, and courts paid little heed to every suspect’s role in ISIS.
“Iraq is thought for highly expedited proceedings where defendants often had limited or no access to legal counsel, evidence was rarely scrutinized in depth, and verdicts were delivered immediately,” said Queen’s University professor Amarnath Amarasingam. “This has resulted in long prison sentences and even the death penalty.”
“Researchers have warned for years that this will occur eventually if countries didn’t repatriate their residents from these camps and prisons,” said Amarasingam, a terrorism expert who has studied Canadian ISIS members.
“By leaving Iraq to soak up the legal burden alone, states have outsourced justice to an overwhelmed system. There are actually serious concerns about due process and wrongful convictions.”
Asked by Global News in regards to the issue last month, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand didn’t confirm that Canadians were amongst those sent to Iraq.
“We’re examining the situation and we’re in contact with our consular officials at every step of the best way,” she said in Ottawa.
Global Affairs Canada similarly wouldn’t share any details on Thursday, saying it might not comment for “privacy and security reasons.”
“The security and security of Canadians all the time remain the utmost priority for the federal government of Canada while meeting needed legal obligations.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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