Kurdish fighters in Syria have set free 300 Syrians suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group. <br />The Kurds announced they had "no blood on their hands" suggesting they did not take part in any fighting.<br />A statement issued by Kurdish authorities stated the prisoners were freed as a gesture of "cooperation, fraternity and clemency."<br />Tribal chiefs and other local officials had lobbied for their release.<br />The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said it was not the first Kurdish authorities released IS-linked prisoners, but the number was particularly large this time.<br />U.S.-backed forces in Syria are holding hundreds of alleged foreign militants and their families, with their home countries reluctant to take them back. <br />
