Tunisia: Six children of slain ISIS fighters in Libya to be repatriated

A delegation of Tunisian authorities arrived Thursday in Misrata, Libya’s third city, to repatriate six children of Tunisians killed in the ranks of the Islamic state group (ISIS) in 2016.

The Libyan Red Crescent said the delegation would return with the children aged 3 and 12 years old.

The children whose names have not been revealed, have been under care in the Libyan city for three years.

Several other children of different nationalities, offspring of ISIS fighters killed in Sirte, the hometown of former country strongman Muammar Gaddafi, are held in Libya.

Misrata forces, aligned with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) ruling from Tripoli, and supported by US air forces drove out the extremist group of the Libyan city that they captured in 2014.

The Tunisian forensic police took DNA samples from the children, a year ago, to confirm their nationalities before returning them to their home countries, AFP reports.

NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, accused Tunisian officials of “dragging their feet” on efforts to repatriate children of Daesh members, the French news agency says.

Tunisia, according to a UN 2015 report, was the main source of foreign fighters in the ranks of the terror group. Around 5,000 Tunisians left their country to fight in hotbed conflict zones mainly Libya and Syria.

Tunisian authorities played down the number as they talked about 3,000. Hundreds of fighters have returned home. Some have been jailed and others put under tight surveillance.