The US on Thursday warned European countries they were making a "bad decision" by leaving their nationals who fought with the Islamic State group in Syria instead of repatriating them to face justice.
The collapse of the IS "caliphate" has left US-backed Syrian rebel forces holding thousands of foreign fighters and many Western countries are reluctant to take them back due to public opposition and fears they could pose a threat.
But James Jeffrey, the US special representative on Syria and Washington's ambassador to the global coalition to defeat ISIS, said that by dodging their responsibility for their citizens, rich countries were risking fresh violence.
"We're talking about countries with per capita incomes about the same as the United States... putting the burden on informal local authorities who are detached from a state structure in the middle of a war zone," Jeffrey told reporters at a meeting of the coalition in Brussels.
"That's a bad decision. Period. If those people break out -- many of them are dangerous -- they will kill people."
"That's what we're doing in the relatively limited number of cases we have. But we are doing it, why can't they?"
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