US repatriates 11 citizens from notorious camp for relatives of Islamic State militants in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants. The U.S. State Department said Tuesday that the repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date. Although the pace of repatriations has picked up — neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens — many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.