Michelle Obama has officially begun her 12-stop tour to promote her new book, "Becoming," by sitting for a conversation with Oprah Winfrey at the home arena of the Chicago Bulls.
The crowd of 14,000 roared as the former first lady stepped onto a stage late Tuesday at the sold-out United Center. The event felt part music concert, part talk show and part political rally.
At the start, she described the day she and her family left the White House and got on a plane. She said she cried for 30 minutes from relief after "eight years trying to do everything perfectly."
Michelle Obama enters the arena to discusses her new book during an intimate conversation to promote "Becoming" at the United Center on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018, in Chicago. (Photo by Rob GrabowskiInvisionAP)
Her other stops include Los Angeles, Detroit and Paris.
Her just-released memoir is already a best-seller. It topped Amazon.com's best-seller list throughout the weekend.
Former first lady Michelle Obama signs copies of her new book "Becoming" and greets fans as she kicks off a national book tour at Seminary Co-op Bookstore in Chicago, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018. (Ashlee RezinChicago Sun-Times via AP)
Former first lady Michelle Obama embraces a student at her alma mater, Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, on Chicago's West Side, Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, a day before the launch of a book tour to promote her memoir, "Becoming." (AP PhotoTeresa Crawford)
Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks with students about her upcoming book "Becoming" during a roundtable discussion at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, on Monday, Nov 12, 2018, in Chicago. (Photo by Rob GrabowskiInvisionAP)
BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.
The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.
As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.
Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.
The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.
Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.
“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.
FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)
FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
