BAGHDAD, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi authorities handed over four women and 27 children from families of Islamic State (IS) militants to Russia, a local television reported on Thursday.
"Iraq has handed over four women and 27 children from those who were tricked to join the Daesh (IS) terrorist group," al-Sumaria channel quoted Ahmed Mahjoub, spokesman of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, as saying.
Mahjoub said that those transferred IS associates "have not been proven to be involved in terrorist operations against civilians or security forces," adding that "they will be prosecuted in Russia for illegally entering Iraq."
Earlier, an Iraqi newspaper reported that more than 1,500 women and children from families of IS militants are held by the Iraqi authorities, and the Iraqi government is coordinating with their countries to decide their fate.
"We are holding 500 wives of IS warriors, all foreigners, in addition to their children, bringing the number to more than 1,500," the al-Mashriq newspaper quoted Mohammed al-Sudani, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, as saying.
Sudani said that his ministry made many contacts with the countries to which those detainees belong to decide how to deal with the children, according to the newspaper.
For his part, Saad al-Hadithi, spokesman of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's media office, confirmed that all "foreign nationals who committed crimes and violations against the people of Iraq, whether directly or by supporting the terrorist IS militants, will be subject to the Iraqi law."
"This also applies to foreign women (of IS families) who committed such actions inside the Iraqi territories," Hadithi said.
"The government will coordinate with the countries to which the detainees belong. If they are not proven to have committed crimes or killings or bombings in Iraq, they will be handed over to their countries," Hadithi added.
Thousands of foreign fighters from different countries had joined IS group which established the self-proclaimed Islamic State in parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Hundreds of them have been killed, captured or run away after the Iraqi forces liberated all of the urban areas under their control, including their major stronghold in the city of Mosul late last year.
