What to do with captured IS members

WASHINGTON - What to do with hundreds of foreign Islamic State extremists captured in Syria has become a critical and growing problem for the United States government as President Donald Trump prepares to pull troops out of the country.

A senior US official said on Tuesday that resolving the fate of these prisoners is a top priority as the government lays the groundwork with allies to comply with Trump's Dec 19 order to withdraw the 2,000 US troops from Syria, where they have been working alongside the US-backed Syrian Defense Forces (also known as SDF) to fight the IS group since 2015.

But there are no easy answers. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said releasing the fighters would be "unacceptable" since they could simply rejoin the remnants of IS fighters in Syria or elsewhere.