Kurdish-led forces in Syria called on the international community to take back foreign extremists to the countries of origin, warning that ISIS militants they have detained are a time-bomb that must be urgently defused.

“There are thousands of fighters, children and women and from 54 countries, not including Iraqis and Syrians, who are a serious burden and danger for us and for the international community,” the Kurdish administration’s top foreign affairs official, Abdel Karim Omar, told AFP.

“Numbers increased massively during the last 20 days of the Baghouz operation,” he said.

“There has to be coordination between us and the international community to address this danger,” Omar noted.

“There are thousands of children who have been raised according to ISIS ideology,” he added.

“If these children are not reeducated and reintegrated in their societies of origin, they are potential future terrorists.”