Recently, a document has circulated that purports to come from a prison in western Baghdad (the right bank of the Tigris River, since the river flows from north to south) affiliated with Iraq’s Justice Ministry. The document provides a statistical overview of prisoners recently transferred from SDF-run prisons in Syria that were holding people accused of affiliation with the Islamic State.
At least in the case of the foreigners from outside Iraq and Syria, it is likely that most of them were affiliated with the Islamic State at some point, though investigations will also have to consider whether some of might have initially entered Islamic State territory without formally joining the organisation itself(something that would require giving allegiance to the group’s caliph) and whether some might have been expelled from the group after joining for reasons of misconduct but continued to reside in Islamic State-held territory.
The document provides a statistical overview of prisoners recently transferred from SDF-run prisons in Syria that were holding people accused of affiliation with the Islamic State.
Is the circulated document authentic? Yes.
Notably, the statistics in the document more or less match those provided by the National Centre for International Judicial Cooperation, which is part of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council and was notably involved in cooperating with UNITAD, a UN investigative team that worked on investigating Islamic State war crimes in Iraq. According to the centre, the total number of detainees transferred amounts to 5704 people from 61 countries, with Iraqis constituting 467 individuals. Individuals from other Arab countries total 4253 individuals, while ‘non-Arab foreigners’ number 983 individuals.
Syrians alone constitute 3543 individuals, according to the same source. Their status is almost certainly going to be an issue of contention with the Iraqi government, similar to the discussions held with Lebanon about Syrians being detained by the Lebanese authorities, many of them on the basis of affiliation with insurgent groups that fought the Assad regime and Hezbollah (and occasionally Lebanon’s armed forces). Among the other Arab country nationalities listed in the document, Tunisia stands out for disproportionate representation. This reflects the broader trend with jihadist mobilisation since 2011 in which Tunisians played a disproportionate role.
I provide a full translation of the document below. It will be noted that a couple of countries are duplicated.
Republic of Iraq
Ministry of Justice
Iraqi Correction Service
al-Karkh Central Prison Division
1. Azerbaijan: 55
2. Jordan: 19
3. Spain: 1
4. Australia: 13
5. Afghanistan: 25
6. Albania: 8
7. Bosnia and Herzegovina: 23
8. Algeria: 25
9. Sweden: 5
10. Iraq: 460
11. Germany: 27
12. Morocco: 187
13. Yemen: 9
14. Indonesia: 46
15. Uzbekistan: 36
16. Ukraine: 13
17. Iran: 23
18. Israel: 1
19. Ireland: 1
20. South America: 7
21. Pakistan: 17
22. Bahrain: 6
23. Britain: 10
24. Belgium: 8
25. Bangladesh: 3
26. Poland: 2
27. Turkestan: 165*
28. Turkey: 181
29. Trinidad and Tobago: 5
30. Holland: 9
31. Tunisia: 234
32. Maldives: 1
33. South Africa: 1
34. New Zealand: 1
35. Georgia: 3
36. Daghestan: 3
37. Denmark: 2
38. Russia: 130
39. Saudi Arabia: 68
40. Sudan: 8
41. Syria: 3544
42. Sweden: 3
43. Switzerland: 3
44. Seychelles: 1
45. Chechnya: 7
46. Serbia: 2
47. Somalia: 2
48. Chinese: 5
49. Tajikistan: 63
50. France: 4
51. Palestine: 5
52. Kyrgyzstan: 42
53. Kazakhstan: 4
54. Canada: 5
55. Guantanamo: 1**
56. Kurdistan: 3
57. Kosovo region: 3
58. Lebanon: 13
59. Libya: 24
60. Maldives: 2
61. Malaysia: 5
62. Egypt: 116
63. Montenegro: 1***
64. Austria: 2
65. India: 1
66. America: 2
Total: 5704
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Notes* Probably Uyghurs without a Chinese passport.** Likely meaning the person was previously a detainee held at Guantánamo by the Americans.*** Misspelled in the original.
Published originally on February 17, 2026.
