Syria’s foreign minister said confronting the threat posed by the Islamic State is a shared responsibility between Damascus and Baghdad, praising Iraq for taking in thousands of detained militants transferred from prisons in northeast Syria.

Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani told a press conference that Iraq had played a significant role in handling Islamic State detainees and had shared what he described as a heavy security burden with Syria.

“The transfer of Islamic State prisoners from Syria to Iraq was carried out based on assessments conducted by the United States,” Shaibani said, referring to a months-long operation to relocate detainees previously held in Kurdish-run facilities.

His remarks came after United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Friday that a transfer operation launched on Jan. 21 had been completed, with 5,700 Islamic State detainees moved from prisons in Syria to Iraq. All of those transferred were male, according to the statement.

Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council separately confirmed the completion of the process, saying the total number of Islamic State detainees transferred from Syria had reached 5,704 individuals holding nationalities from 61 countries.

Earlier, on Jan. 21, CENTCOM said it had begun a new phase of transfers aimed at ensuring detainees would be held in secure facilities under Iraqi authority. At the conclusion of the broader process, nearly 7,000 captured Islamic State fighters are expected to have been relocated from Syria to prisons in Iraq.

Iraq’s Justice Minister Khalid Shwani said last week that all transferred detainees would be held under the supervision of the Supreme Judicial Council and tried in Iraqi courts by specialized judicial panels.

The detainees were previously held in facilities in northeast Syria, many run by Kurdish-led authorities backed by the United States. The prisons have long been viewed as a security risk, with repeated warnings from US and Iraqi officials that overcrowding and instability could create opportunities for Islamic State to regroup.

Islamic State, which once controlled vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019. However, the group continues to carry out insurgent attacks in both countries, prompting ongoing security coordination between Baghdad, Damascus and Washington.

Officials in both Iraq and Syria have said closer cooperation remains essential to prevent a resurgence of the militant group, which continues to pose one of the region’s most persistent security threats.