U.N. war crimes team has shared files on foreign fighters in Syria

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations war crimes investigators have provided judicial assistance to various countries in response to 15 requests for information on foreign fighters in Syria, investigator Carla del Ponte said on Monday. Detainees held by the Syrian government are dying on a massive scale amounting to a state policy of "extermination" of the civilian population, while jihadi groups have also executed prisoners, the U.N. investigators said in a report. Del Ponte, a member of the U.N. commission of inquiry, told a news briefing that it had provided information about some suspects to national authorities: "We have 15 requests already, to which we have responded."She declined to identify the countries involved, but later told Reuters: "These are low-level and middle-level perpetrators because they are foreign fighters, not high-ranking." (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)