Archive January 29, 2026

Lawyers for a group of French nationals accused of being part of ISIL (ISIS) and transferred by the United States from Syria to prisons in Iraq say the inmates have been subjected to “torture and inhumane treatment” there.

French media reported on Wednesday that lawyers Marie Dose and Matthieu Bagard visited the accused men in Baghdad during a recent visit and said their clients had been subjected to ill-treatment in detention in Iraq.

The abuse – including being slapped, strangled, handcuffed behind their backs “with a pulley system” and threatened with rape with iron bars – was inflicted to “make them confess to their presence in Iraq” during their alleged time in ISIL, which would give the Iraqi justice system jurisdiction to try them for their alleged crimes, the lawyers said.

The lawyers were quoted as saying the accused ISIL members “assured us that they had not been in Iraq before their arrest in Syria and their transfer to Baghdad”.

Deaths in Syrian custody

During their two-day visit, which began on Sunday, the lawyers, acting on behalf of the families of the prisoners, said they met 13 of the 47 French nationals alleged to be ISIL members who are being held in Iraq.

The 13 men said they were arrested from 2017 to March 23, 2019, the day ISIL lost control of Baghouz, Syria, ending its final hold on territory.

They said they were imprisoned in a jail in northeastern Syria under challenging conditions, in which four French inmates died due to illness and “severe deficiencies”, and they were interrogated on numerous occasions by the FBI, CIA and other agencies believed to represent France and the European Union.

US military transfers

The lawyers made the comments amid the transfer of large numbers of ISIL detainees from prisons and detention camps in Syria to Iraq on US military flights.

The wave of transfers was being carried out after a recent advance by Syrian government forces in the northeast against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the US trained and supported to fight ISIL. The SDF has controlled camps and prisons holding suspected ISIL members for years.

The escape of ISIL detainees during the fighting in cities like al-Shaddadi sparked concerns that they could regroup and pose a renewed security threat, prompting an arrangement for the US military to run flights transferring the prisoners to Iraqi jails.

The Associated Press news agency reported on Sunday that 275 prisoners had been transferred so far while the Anadolu Agency reported that thousands were planned to be transferred under the agreement.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Sunday said the transfer of the ISIL detainees was “temporary” and urged countries to repatriate their nationals.

United States batter Aaron Jones ‍has ‍been provisionally suspended after being charged with five breaches of the International Cricket Council (ICC) ⁠anticorruption code, the governing body says.

The 31-year-old has ‍14 days to respond to the charges, which relate mostly to his ‍participation in ⁠the 2023-2024 Bim10 tournament in Barbados, while two of the charges relate to international cricket, the ICC said.

USA Cricket did not immediately ​respond to a request ‌for comment outside normal business hours.

The ICC accused Jones of fixing, trying to fix or influencing Bim10 matches; refusing or failing to cooperate with an investigation; obstructing the inquiry; and failing to disclose attempts to violate the Cricket West Indies anticorruption code.

“These charges are part of a wider investigation which is likely to result in further charges being issued against other participants in due course,” the ICC said in a statement on Wednesday.

Jones was part of an 18-member US squad training ‌in Sri Lanka in preparation for ‌the T20 World Cup, ⁠scheduled from February 7 to March 8 in India and Sri Lanka.

The US ‌has yet to announce its squad for the tournament, and Jones is now ‍ineligible for selection.

Jones was a star of the 2024 edition, which was cohosted by the US, which were also debuting at a major cricket tournament.

He was an integral part of the team that beat Pakistan in what is regarded as the greatest cricketing upset of all time, scoring 11 runs in the super-over victory.

Jones also hit an unbeaten 94 in the seven-wicket win against Canada, which included hitting the winning runs to produce one of the iconic images of the tournament.

Ukraine says it has received the bodies of 1,000 soldiers from Russia in the latest exchange of those killed in the war as the nearly four-year-old conflict continues to exact a heavy toll on both sides.

Russia and Ukraine confirmed the exchange on Thursday, describing it as part of ongoing agreements reached earlier in the war to allow families to bury those killed on the battlefield.

Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said that “within the framework of the Istanbul agreements, the bodies of 1,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers have been transferred to Ukraine”, adding that “bodies of 38 dead Russian soldiers have been transferred to Russia”.

Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War confirmed the handover, saying in a statement that “repatriation events took place today, as part of which one thousand bodies were returned to Ukraine”.

Deep freeze follows Russian strikes on energy infrastructure

The exchange comes as the war, launched by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, shows little sign of abating, even as winter deepens and conditions worsen for civilians.

Ukraine’s state weather agency warned on Thursday that temperatures could plunge to as low as -30C (-22F) in the coming days, compounding the impact of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

The Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Centre said the coldest nights are expected between February 1 and 3, raising concerns about heating and electricity supplies already strained by repeated missile and drone strikes.

Russian attacks on power facilities have previously left millions of Ukrainians facing disruptions to heating, electricity and water, pushing parts of the country closer to a humanitarian crisis.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Wednesday evening that Russia was preparing fresh large-scale strikes on energy targets. Kyiv city officials said 613 buildings in the capital were without heating following recent aerial attacks.

Kremlin insists Moscow the only venue for Putin-Zelenskyy meeting

Against this backdrop, diplomatic manoeuvring continues, though prospects for a breakthrough remain uncertain.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Moscow is the only venue under consideration for a possible face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy, dismissing discussions of alternative locations.

The comments follow remarks by Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov, who said that Zelenskyy had expressed interest in meeting the Russian leader in person and that Moscow had never ruled out such contact.

Ushakov said the idea of a meeting has been raised several times, including during phone conversations between Putin and US President Donald Trump.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Zelenskyy is ready to meet Putin to discuss what he described as the most sensitive issues in Kyiv’s 20-point peace plan, including territorial questions and the future of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.