An American Family Detained in Syria Is Sent Back to the U.S.

BEIRUT — Two American women and six children affiliated with the Islamic State have been returned to the United States from Syria at the request of American authorities, local forces in northeastern Syria said Wednesday.

An American official said that the group was a Cambodian-American family from the Seattle area, and that they had not yet arrived in the United States. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities regarding the case.

The Americans wanted to go back and did so “without any pressure or coercion,” Abdulkarim Omar, a senior official with the Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria, said in a statement.

He did not identify the Americans or provide any other details. It was not clear whether they would face prosecution when they came back to the United States, or what would happen to them.

The group appeared to be among the roughly 12,000 foreign women and children whom local Kurdish authorities have been holding in detention camps scattered across northeastern Syria, along with about 1,000 foreign fighters.