The parents of Jack Letts, a British-born Canadian man who travelled to Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria as a teenager in 2014, have described their shock, relief and frustration after being phoned “out of the blue” by their son from an Iraqi detention centre nine years after they were last able to speak to him.
Sally Lane, Letts's mother, told Middle East Eye she hoped the unexpected phone call was a sign of mounting pressure by Baghdad to force the repatriation of foreign nationals held over alleged links to the Islamic State group (IS) for almost a decade in Syria until their transfer into Iraqi custody earlier this year.
"It came completely out of the blue. It was just a random phone call and normally I wouldn’t answer. But I happened to recognise the Iraqi code so I answered it and Jack said 'Hello Mum'," said Lane.
"It was very short and he said there were a million things he wanted to say to me. The good thing is he sounded perfectly sane and normal."
Lane said she believed the phone call, which lasted just three minutes and took place last month, had been facilitated by Iraqi officials amid growing impatience about the continuing refusal of western nations including Canada and the UK to take responsibility for their own nationals.
