Violence against LGBT people

Belgium will resume the mission of its F-16 fighter planes over Syria and Iraq in the second half of next year, local media reported, citing a statement by Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders to parliamentary committees, BTA reported.

With Turkey's invasion of northeastern Syria, leading to the escape of ISIL jihadists from prisons, Greek security officials are on alert because of fears that the organization's terrorists could infiltrate Europe.

With Turkey's invasion of northeastern Syria leading to the escape of Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists from prisons guarded by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Greek security officials have been placed on high alert due to concerns they may seek their repatriation in Europe, using Greece as a bridge.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Oct. 19 that all of the nearly 1,000 troops withdrawing from northern Syria are expected to move to western Iraq to continue the campaign against ISIL militants and "to help defend Iraq."

The UN Security Council warned in a unanimous statement about the risk of "dispersal" of jihadist prisoners in Syria, but did not call for an end to Turkey's offensive against Kurdish forces there.

"Security Council members have expressed deep concern about the risks of terrorist spreading by UN-designated groups, including the Islamic State," the statement said.

US President Donald Trump said today that Kurdish-led forces in Northeast Syria could release detained fighters from the ISIL group to force the US to return its troops to the area, BTA reported.

Turkey's operation in Syria has raised concerns that ISIL fighters detained by Kurdish-led US allies may flee and rebuild the group. It is claimed that many fighters have already escaped.

The Iraqi husband of a German woman who is being tried on charges that the couple allowed a 5-year-old Yazidi girl they kept as a slave to die of thirst in the hot sun has been extradited from Greece to Germany.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces coalition, which controls northeastern Syria, said a Turkish air strike had hit a jail holding jihadists, Reuters reported.

"One of the prisons that ISIS detainees (are) held in was struck by Turkish airstrike," the Kurdish-Arab coalition told Twitter in no further detail.

Two Turkish F-16 fighters have made a flight over Syrian airspace as part of a multinational campaign to fight and eradicate the ISIL in the war-torn country, amid Turkish-American talks for setting up a safe zone in the eastern Euphrates.

Four foreign nationals were detained on Sept. 19 in central Turkey for suspected links to the ISIL terrorist organization, according to a police source.