JAKARTA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian counter-terrorism agency BNPT and police will interrogate 18 citizens who escaped from the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, a national police spokesman said here Monday.
The 18 people, including teenagers, women and infants, arrived in Jakarta over the weekend and they were handed over to the agency and the anti-terror squad of the national police, spokesman Brigadier General Rikwanto said.
"The people were brought directly to Sentul of Bogor town, they were handed to the BNPT," Rikwanto said in a statement.
The people escaped from the IS terrorist group in the Syrian city of Raqqa after the terrorist group placed them in a detention center as they rejected to fight for the IS group, according to the Indonesian foreign ministry.
Previously it was reported that the number of the escaping persons was 17, but the spokesman revised it to 18.
The 18 people left Indonesia in August 2015 and stayed in an IS camp in the Syrian city of Raqqa about 40 days, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, director for the protection of Indonesian national and entities abroad said.
