The United States embassy in Baghdad condemned on Thursday the attack on UN vehicles carrying a humanitarian mission in northern Iraq.

The U.N. counter-terrorism chief on Wednesday urged the repatriation of tens of thousands of women and children suspected of links to the Islamic State extremist group (ISIS), warning that many are being radicalized in deteriorating detention camps in Syria and Iraq.

On Thursday, a large convoy of high ranking Syrian officers entered the city of Tafas in the western countryside of Daraa, accompanied by a Russian Military Police officer.