WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2021) The United States has seen indications of radicalization in children in detention centers in Syria, the US State Department's Acting Counterterrorism Coordinator John Godfrey said at a middle East Institute conference on Thursday.
"We've seen indications of radicalization in kids as young as 10 and 11 years of age," said Godfrey, who is also the US special envoy to the coalition against the Islamic State (a terrorist group outlawed in Russia).
Godfrey said there are about 2,000 foreign terrorist fighters currently in the custody of the Syrian Democratic Forces and some 10,000 associated family members mostly in IDP camps. He underscored that in that 10,000 there a large number of children who have been through some horrific experiences.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Kenneth McKenzie said earlier in February that the SDF holds the fighters in more than two dozen detention centers across northeast Syria.
The SDF, founded in 2015 of Kurdish and Arab militias and operating in the north of Syria, has played an active role in fighting the Islamic State. The SDF has placed thousands of the captured militants and members of their families in prisons and camps.
