BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court has sentenced 16 Tur­kish women to death by hanging for joining the militant Islamic State (IS) group, a judiciary spokesman said on Sunday.

Iraq is conducting the trials of hundreds of foreign women who have been detained, with hundreds of their children, since August by Iraqi forces as the IS strongholds crumbled.

The central criminal court issued the sentences “after it was proven they belong to the Daesh terrorist group and after they confessed to marrying Daesh elements or providing members of the group with logistical aid or helping them carry out terrorist attacks,” said Judge Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar, referring to the militant group using an Arabic acronym.

All the verdicts are subject to appeal, he said.

Thousands of foreigners have fought on behalf of IS in Iraq and Syria since at least 2014. Many foreign women came — or were brought — from overseas to join the militants.

More than 1,300 women and children surrendered to Kurdish Peshmerga in Aug­ust, after government forces expelled the jihadist group from the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar. Their numbers have since swelled to about 1,700 as more foreign nationals surrendered or were captured during operations to root out the militants, according to aid officials.

Another Turkish woman was sentenced to death last week and 10 others of various nationalities to life in prison, all for alleged IS membership.

A German woman was sente­n­ced to death last month for belonging to the group and a Russian fighter was also sentenced to death in Iraq last year for joining the hardline group.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2018