Iraq holding wives of Daesh militants
south of mosul — Iraqi authorities are holding 1,400 foreign wives and children of suspected Daesh fighters in a camp after government forces expelled the militant group from one of its last remaining strongholds in Iraq, security and aid officials said.
Many of them say they are from Russia, Turkey and Central Asia, but there are also some from European countries, the officials said. They have mostly arrived at the camp south of Mosul since August 30.
An Iraqi intelligence officer said that they were in the process of verifying their nationalities with their home countries, since many of the women no longer had their original documents.
It is the largest group of foreigners linked to Daesh to be held by Iraqi forces since they started expelling the militants from Mosul and other areas in northern Iraq last year, an aid official said. Thousands of foreigners have been fighting for Daesh in Iraq and Syria.
A senior security officer said the authorities were trying to find a safe place to house the families while negotiating with embassies for their return home. They are not allowed to leave the camp.
Reuters reporters saw hundreds of the women and children sitting on mattresses crawling with bugs in tents in what aid workers called a “militarised site”. Turkish, French and Russian were among the languages spoken.
“I want to go back (to France) but don’t know how,” said a Frenchspeaking veiled woman of Chechen origin who said she had lived in Paris before.
She said she did not know what had happened to her husband, who had brought her to Iraq when he joined IDaesh .
The security officer said the women and children had mostly surrendered to the Kurdish Peshmerga near the northern city of Tal Afar, along with their husbands. The Kurds handed the women and children over to Iraqi forces, but
My mother doesn’t even know where I am. I had just given birth to this little girl three months before, A French woman, of Algerian descent
I want to go back (to France) but don’t know how to go about it A French woman
kept the men — all presumed to be fighters — in their custody. Many of the families had fled to Tal Afar after Iraqi troops pushed Daesh out of Mosul on August 30.
Iraqi forces retook Tal Afar, a city of predominantly ethnic Turkmen that has produced some of IDaesh ’s most senior commanders, last month. Most of its pre-war population of 200,000 have fled.
Aid workers and the authorities are worried about tensions between Iraqis, who lost their homes and are also living in the camp, and the new arrivals. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which is supporting the 541 women and their children, said Iraq “must swiftly move to clarify its future plans for these individuals”.
The women in the camp were cooking noodles or lying on mattresses with their babies in the hot tents. Many were still wearing the black abayas and face-veils, which was mandatory in areas the militants controlled.
“My mother doesn’t even know where I am,” said a 27-year-old French woman of Algerian descent who said she had been tricked by her husband to come with him via Turkey into Syria and then Iraq when he joined Daesh last year.
“I had just given birth to this little girl three months before,” she said holding the infant and asking not to be named.
“He said ‘let’s go for a week’s holiday in Turkey.’ He had already bought the plane tickets and the hotel.” —