US, UN Officials Hail Uzbekistan's Repatriation of IS Families

TASHKENT/WASHINGTON - U.S. and U.N. envoys to Uzbekistan have praised the country's repatriation of Islamic State wives and children in the Middle East, saying other nations should follow suit as a part of a global effort to reduce the risk of IS reemergence in Syria and Iraq.

"They have done a very credible, excellent job," Daniel Rosenblum, U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan, told VOA. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's government began Operation Mehr, or Compassion, in 2019 to return noncombatant citizens from camps in northeast Syria held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Five operations since May 2019 have repatriated 435 women and children, mostly from Syria but also from Iraq and Afghanistan, including 343 minors ages 1 to 15.