IRAQ PUSHES TO RETURN CHILDREN OF ISIS FIGHTERS

Baghdad wants foreign nations to take back almost 1,000 children of imprisoned extremists

Iraq is pushing foreign governments, including Germany and Russia, to take back almost 1,000 children of imprisoned ISIS fighters.

The request comes after widespread public anxiety over the terrorist group’s murder of members of the security forces that they had abducted.

“We ask all diplomatic mis- sions in Iraq, resident and non-resident, to take back their nationals who have served their sentences and children who are not convicted,” foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Mahjoub said.

According to the Joint Operations Command that co-ordinates the fight against the extremists, at least 833 children of 14 nationalities remain in Iraqi prisons.

“Iraq has informed all of the countries that have citizens in its prisons. We have already spoken with the embassies of Germany, Azerbaijan, Russia and other countries to take [their citizens] back,” he said on Tuesday.

According to Iraqi law, children over the age of nine can face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of violent acts.

It remains unknown whether any of the children listed are accused of terrorist acts.

Iraq has detained hundreds of people, including women and children, who have been identified as extremists or relatives of ISIS fighters.

The country has faced criticism over the high number of death sentences handed down by its anti-terrorist court – it hanged at least 111 convicts last year. More than 300 people, including about 100 foreign women, were sentenced to death in April and hundreds of others to life imprisonment for belonging to ISIS, according to a judicial source.

They were found guilty under Article 4 of Iraq’s anti-terrorism law which states that “any person who commits, incites, plans, finances or

assists in acts of terrorism”. European countries, including France, have taken a hostile approach to citizens facing Iraqi courts, insisting they should face justice abroad.

The French government has shown little sympathy towards adults who joined the group, but appear lenient towards children orphaned by the war.

More than 40,000 foreigners from 110 countries are estimated to have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join the terrorist group. Of those, nearly 2,000 are thought to be French citizens and about 800 are British.

Human Rights Watch has urged authorities in Baghdad to change their approach when dealing with detained foreign women and children accused of links to the militant group.

“Since January Iraq has proceeded with rushed trials against foreigners on charges of illegal entry and membership in or assistance to ISIS without sufficiently taking into account the individual circumstances of each case or guaranteeing suspects a fair trial,” the watchdog said in a report published last week.

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said last year that Baghdad would “find a way to hand the acquitted women and children back to their country of origin”.

About 20,000 people were arrested in the three-year battle by Iraqi forces to drive out ISIS, which seized much of western and northern Iraq in 2014.

Last week, Iraq hanged 13 people convicted of terrorist offensives hours after Mr Al Abadi ordered the execution of hundreds of prisoners on death row in response to the militants’ murder of a group of security force personnel.

The hangings were intended to placate anger over signs of the group’s re-emergence.

Also yesterday, Baghdad launched a major operation against ISIS sleeper cells.

Operation Vengeance for the Martyrs will include the army, special forces, police and Kurdish peshmerga forces hunting down the remaining extremist cells in the country, the JOC said.

The forces also launched an operation to clear out the region east of the Diyala-Kirkuk motorway.