President Bashar al-Assad has said that foreign Islamic State suspects could be tried in Syrian courts, raising the prospect the regime could use them as leverage against the West.

More than 10,000 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters are currently in the detention of Western-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in north-east Syria, including 2,000 foreigners and at least seven Britons.

Thousands more foreign women and their children are also being held in camps across north-east Syria.

Assad made his comments in an interview with Paris Match magazine when asked about a deal with the Kurds that would eventually bring their areas under government control.

Abandoned by their US allies last month and facing an onslaught by Turkey, the SDF was forced to turn to the Syrian regime and Russia for protection.