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2 ISIS militants suspected in 2014 massacre of Iraqi soldiers turned over to Baghdad

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2 ISIS militants suspected in 2014 massacre of Iraqi soldiers turned over to Baghdad

Syria’s U.S.-backed Kurdish-led force has handed over to Baghdad two Islamic State group militants suspected of involvement in mass killings of Iraqi soldiers in 2014, a war monitor said Friday.

The report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights came a day after the Iraqi National Intelligence Service said it had brought back to the country three IS members from outside Iraq. The intelligence service did not provide more details.

The Islamic State group captured an estimated 1,700 Iraqi soldiers after seizing Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base.

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Shortly after taking Tikrit, IS posted graphic images of IS militants shooting and killing the soldiers.

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Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the U.S.-backed force handed over two IS members to Iraq. It was not immediately clear where Iraqi authorities brought the third suspect from.

A masked Islamic State soldier poses holding the ISIS flag in 2015. (Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The 2014 killings, known as the Speicher massacre, sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fueled the mobilization of Shiite militias in the fight against IS, a Sunni extremist group.

Iraq has over the past several years put on trial and later executed dozens of IS members over their involvement in the Speicher massacre.

The Observatory said the two IS members were among 20 captured recently in a joint operation with the U.S.-led coalition in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, once the capital of the Islamic State group’s self-declared caliphate.

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Despite their defeat in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in March 2019, the extremists sleeper cells are still active and have been carrying out deadly attacks against SDF and Syrian government forces.

Shami said a car rigged with explosives and driven by a suicide attacker tried Friday night to storm a military checkpoint for the Deir el-Zour Military Council, an Arab majority faction that is part of the SDF, in the eastern Syrian village of Shuheil. Shami said that when the guards tried to stop the car, the attacker blew himself up killing three U.S.-backed fighters.

No one immediately claimed responsibility but the attack but it was similar to previous such explosions carried out by IS militants.

The SDF is holding over 10,000 captured IS fighters in around two dozen detention facilities, including 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them. The force says fighters of about 60 nationalities had entered Syria years ago and were captured in battle.

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Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria have said they will put on trial IS detainees, though it is not clear when such trials would begin.

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Private flights account for 30% of departures from Oman airport as wealthy evacuate Middle East

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Private flights account for 30% of departures from Oman airport as wealthy evacuate Middle East

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Long border crossings, SUV convoys and six-figure jet charters have become the new escape route out of the Middle East as Operation Epic Fury intensifies, with private flights now accounting for nearly a third of all departures from Oman’s main airport.

FlightRadar24, a real-time flight tracking platform, reported that while Oman continues to be a “vital” hub for evacuation and repatriation flights, private flights accounted for 31% of operations Wednesday at Muscat International Airport.

As of Thursday afternoon, the platform reported more than 30% of all movements at the airport were private flights.

Semafor reported earlier this week that airports in Oman and Saudi Arabia were drawing ultra-wealthy travelers looking to leave the countries.

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Oman continues to be a “vital” hub for evacuation flights at its Muscat International Airport. (Christopher Pike/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

People familiar with the matter told the outlet that private security companies have been booking fleets of SUVs to take people on the 10-hour drive from Dubai to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where private flights are available. 

The clientele evacuating the region are a mix of senior executives at global finance firms and wealthy travelers in the region for business or vacation, according to Semafor.

LIV golfer Jon Rahm, a two-time major winner, was just one of the wealthy who arranged flights amid the turmoil.

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Rahm arranged a charter flight through his partnership with VistaJet, a private aviation company, to fly the seven stranded LIV golfers and a caddie from Oman to Hong Kong after their flights were canceled.

After a more than four-hour drive to Oman, the crew flew to Hong Kong.

A spokesperson for Air Charter Service, a company that acts as a global broker for private jets and freight transport, told FOX Business the company has arranged more than 10 evacuation flights, with more scheduled, mainly out of Oman with passengers looking to flee Dubai.

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FlightRadar24 shared flights flying in and out of Muscat airport. (@Flightradar24 via X)

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“We evacuated some of our own staff who were just visiting the region, and we arranged transport via the Hatta crossing into Oman from the UAE to get them to Muscat from where they flew out of the region,” the spokesperson said. “The border crossing time at Hatta took around 3–4 hours, as of Sunday, but I suspect this has increased now, as more people look at this option.”

Light flight jet trips from Muscat, Oman, to Istanbul, Turkey, are reportedly going for more than $93,000, according to Forbes, which said the price was about double the usual rate. 

The outlet added the same route on heavy jets can cost up to $140,000.

AMERICANS IN MORE THAN A DOZEN MIDDLE EAST NATIONS URGED TO FLEE

This map shows the targets of Iran’s retaliatory strikes. (Fox News)

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The U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran Saturday, triggering retaliatory attacks targeting countries in the region that host U.S. interests. 

Mora Namdar, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, advised U.S. citizens to leave Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

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The limited number of available aircraft has pushed up prices, as citizens and travelers attempt to flee.

Fox News Digital’s Ryan Morik and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

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