(AFP) US-backed forces in Syria said Wednesday they were detaining foreign Islamic State group fighters on a “daily basis,” days after confirming the capture of German jihadist Martin Lemke.
AFP reported Lemke’s capture last week after speaking to two of his wives who said they had fled together from the jihadist group’s final pocket of territory in eastern Syria.
IS is clinging to a tiny sliver of its once-sprawling “caliphate” and many residents are fleeing and turning themselves in ahead of a final offensive.
A spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mustafa Bali, said IS fighters were hiding among the fleeing civilians.
“On a daily basis, we are arresting foreign IS fighters,” he told AFP, declining to provide further details on Lemke’s arrest.
