BEIRUT: Syria鈥檚 Kurds Friday urged international help to set up rehabilitation centers for minors linked to the Daesh group, after charges they were holding 鈥渉undreds of children鈥� in adult prisons.

Acknowledging that some extremist-linked minors were being held in adult prisons, separate to the many more in camps, senior Kurdish foreign affairs official Abdelkarim Omar told AFP around 30 teenagers have lately been transferred out of one overcrowded camp.

He spoke just days after the International Committee of the Red Cross said 鈥渉undreds of children 鈥� mostly boys, some as young as 12 鈥� are detained in adult prisons鈥� in northeast Syria.

Kurdish authorities hold thousands of suspected extremist fighters in their jails, as well as tens of thousands of their relatives in camps for the displaced, after spearheading a US-backed battle against Daesh that formally ended in victory in early 2019.

Omar told AFP an unspecified number of Deash-linked minors who are held in jails are kept in separate quarters to the adults.

He said the region desperately needed more rehabilitation centers for teenagers, on top of a single one already housing some 120 near the city of Qamishli.

鈥淲e think children do not belong in either camps or prisons,鈥� he told AFP.

As a start, he said, 鈥渂etween 30 to 35 children aged 12 and older have been taken out of Al-Hol camp.鈥�

The Kurds were preparing a new rehabilitation center in the city of Hasakah, which 鈥渨ill be ready in the coming days,鈥� Omar added.

Since Kurdish-led fighters expelled Daesh from the last scrap of their territorial 鈥渃aliphate鈥� in March 2019, Al-Hol has swelled to a tent city of some 62,000 people 鈥� civilians but also alleged Daesh relatives.

The United Nations says it has documented 鈥渞adicalization鈥� in the camp, where the number of guards is limited and around 10,000 foreign Daesh-linked women and children lived in a separate annex.

Fabrizio Carboni, head of ICRC鈥檚 Middle East and Near East operations, on Wednesday described a 鈥減ervasive sense of hopelessness鈥� in Al-Hol.

Boys lived 鈥渋n a state of constant fear,鈥� as 鈥渙nce they reach a certain age, many are separated from their families and transferred to adult places of detention,鈥� he said in a statement.

He called for children in detention to be 鈥渆ither reunited with their families in camps, repatriated alongside them or have alternative care arrangements made for them.鈥�

Omar, the Kurdish official, urged the international community to help it 鈥渟et up 15 or 16 centers to bring the children out of the jails, until a solution is found.鈥�

Keeping them in their current 鈥渆nvironment will only lead to the emergence of a new generation of terrorists,鈥� he warned.