Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Six Islamic State members, including a woman, were arrested in operations in Nineveh province, the Iraqi Interior Ministry announced on Friday.

In a press release, the ministry said troops in Nineveh “arrested six Islamic State members, including a woman. All are wanted for by courts for trials.”

“Two of them were arrested in Abu Maria village in Tal Afar, while the rest were in several areas across Mosul,” the ministry added.

Last week, news reports quoted sources as saying that over 20 IS members were arrested in several security operations carried out in west of Mosul.

Thousands of Islamic State militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.

Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks across Iraq against security troops. Security reports indicate that the militant group still poses threat against stability in the country.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced, in December, full liberation of Iraqi lands, declaring end of war against IS members. The war against IS has displaced at least five million people. </s> Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi police forces arrested six Islamic State militants in the group’s former bastion, Mosul, a police official was quoted saying on Thursday.

Spokesperson of the Interior Ministry, Saad Maan, said in a statement that the six were arrested in al-Wahda neighborhood in eastern Mosul after a raid of searches, adding that those arrested had arrest warrants issued for them based on the anti-terrorism law.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State militants in December 2017, ending a three-year military campaign against the group to retake areas they had occupied to proclaim a self-styled “caliphate”.

But even after Iraq declared that the militants lost their territorial influence, the group seems to continue to represent a security concern, launching several attacks against security and civilians and causing several death. </s> A court in Iraq has sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining the Islamic State terrorist group.

The Central Criminal Court in Baghdad, which deals with terrorism cases, also sentenced six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan to life in prison on Sunday on the same charge.

Most of the defendants told the court they had been brought to Iraq against their will from Turkey by IS fighters.

Earlier this month, the Russian Foreign Ministry said between 50 and 70 "Russian-speaking women" were being held in Iraq, along with more than 100 of their children.

IS took over nearly one third of Iraq in a blistering 2014 offensive, seizing control of the country's second largest city, Mosul, among others.

Baghdad declared military victory over the jihadists in December, after expelling them from all urban centers.

Experts estimate that Iraq is holding 20,000 people in jail over suspected IS membership. There is no official figure.

Iraqi courts have sentenced to death a total of more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to IS. </s> Iraq on Sunday sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining the Islamic State group, the latest in a series of heavy verdicts against foreign women linked to the jihadists.

The head of Baghdad’s Central Criminal Court, which deals with terrorism cases, said the women were found guilty of “joining and supporting IS“, according to an AFP journalist at the hearing. Six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan were also condemned to life in prison Sunday on the same charge.

The women, who have the right to appeal against the sentences, entered the court one-by-one dressed in black headscarves and pink blouses, most of them accompanied by their children. They addressed the court through a translator, a Russian-language professor at Baghdad University hired by their embassy for the trial.

“We will contact the parents to inform them of the verdict,” a Russian diplomat at the hearing told AFP.

IS took over nearly one third of Iraq in a blistering 2014 offensive, seizing control of the country’s second largest city, Mosul, among others. Baghdad declared military victory over the jihadists in December, after expelling them from all urban centres.

It has detained at least 560 women and 600 children identified as jihadists or relatives of suspected IS fighters, and is wasting no time in putting them on trial.

Most of the women on trial on Sunday claimed they were tricked into going to Iraq.

“I did not know we were in Iraq,” said one of the accused. “I went with my husband and my children to Turkey to live there, and then I suddenly discovered that I was actually in Iraq.”

Experts estimate that Iraq is holding 20,000 people in jail over suspected IS membership. There is no official figure.

Iraqi courts have sentenced to death a total of more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to IS, judicial sources said earlier this month.

Iraq’s anti-terrorism law empowers courts to convict people who are believed to have helped jihadists even if they are not accused of carrying out attacks. </s> Iraq has held around 1,400 foreign wives and children of suspected Islamic State fighters since U.S.-backed forces recaptured the city of Mosul in 2017. Most of them hail from Turkey, followed by women from Russia and the former Soviet republics.

Iraq has reportedly sentenced two Russian women to life in prison for ties to Islamic State.

A criminal court in Iraq sentenced two Russian women and one French woman to life sentences in prison for Islamic State ties, local media reported Tuesday.

Three Azerbaijani women and one Kyrgyz woman were reportedly sentenced to death.

Elvira Beremova, born in 1997, and Alisa Ismailova, born in 1992, were convicted on charges of terrorism and illegally crossing the border, the BBC Russia service reported on Tuesday, citing a member of the Chechen human rights council.



Beremova is reportedly a mother of two and Ismailova is a mother of three. 



A Russian senator told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that Moscow has two weeks to file an appeal.

“We did our best to alleviate the plight of the imprisoned Russian women without violating the laws of Iraq,” RIA cited Russian Senator Ziyad Sabsabi as saying.

RIA reported that Beremova and Ismailova are listed among 57 Russian women and around 100 of their children detained in a female prison in Baghdad as of March. </s> A court in Baghdad sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters in the country.

A Central Criminal Court ruling determined on Sunday the Russian women were guilty of "joining and supporting" ISIL, AFP news agency reported.

The women, many accompanied by their children, addressed the court through a translator - a Russian -language professor at Baghdad University hired by the Russian embassy.

A Russian diplomat at the hearing said the families of the women will be contacted and "informed of the verdict".

Another six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan were also given life sentences.

Most of the women on trial claimed to have been misled into making the trip to Iraq.

"I did not know we were in Iraq … I went with my husband and my children to Turkey to live there and then I suddenly discovered I was actually in Iraq," one of the accused said on Sunday.

ISIL fighters surprised Iraqi forces with a lightning-quick offensive in 2014 and captured about one-third of the country, including the second-largest city Mosul, among others.

Since declaring victory over ISIL in late 2017, Iraqi authorities have arrested more than 560 women and 600 children identified as either as members of the group or relatives of fighters.

Earlier this month, an Iraqi court sentenced French national Djamila Boutoutaou to life imprisonment for joining the armed group.

Boutoutaou told authorities at the time she travelled with her husband thinking they would go on a holiday, but soon realised once in Turkey that her "husband was a jihadist".

Her husband was later killed in a military operation near Mosul along with their son. Boutoutaou subsequently surrendered to Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq.

Experts estimate Iraq has detained more than 20,000 people over suspected ties to the group and has sentenced more than 300 people to death so far. Twelve ISIL widows were given the death penalty in February.

Iraq's anti-terrorism laws empower courts to convict people who are believed to have helped ISIL, even if they were not directly involved in fighting. </s> Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi judiciary sentenced on Tuesday seven foreign women of various nationalities to death and life in jail over affiliation with Islamic State militants, news reports said.

The Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement that the Central Criminal Court sentenced three Azerbaijanis and one Kergyz to death, while issuing a life sentence for two Russians and a French national.

Earlier news reports quoted AFP identifying the French nationa as 29-year-old Jamila Botoato.

In February, Iraq sentenced a French woman to seven months in jail for entering the country illegally. In the same month, 16 Turkish women were sentenced to death for providing logistical support to the militants.

Iraq is holding hundreds of foreign wives and children of Islamic State militants who were captured as Iraqi forces gradually seized back territories held by the extremist group since 2014. The government declared victory over IS last December.

Authorities say they are coordinating with other countries to extradite those held who are not convicted of terrorism. </s> Iraq’s Central Criminal Court has issued death sentences to 16 Turkish women, a judiciary spokesman said. They were found guilty of joining Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and aiding terrorists in their attacks.

The women were convicted to death by hanging 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,” Judge Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar, a spokesman of the court, told reporters, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. The court’s decision can still be appealed, he said.

Thousands of women, including foreign nationals who joined the terrorist group, were detained by Iraqi forces as they liberated territories held by the extremists. In October last year, the Iraqi ambassador to Belgium, Jawad Al-Chlaihawi, put the total number of detained IS militant family members at 14,000. Many of them now face trial.

On Monday, the Iraqi court sentenced another Turkish woman to death over membership in the terrorist group while handing down life sentences to 10 more women of various nationalities. In late January, the death sentence was issued to a German woman of Moroccan descent who reportedly became the first foreign woman to be sentenced to death by an Iraqi court.

As many as 100 foreign fighters who travelled to Iraq to fight for Islamic State will stand trial in Iraq, Al-Chlaihawi said, adding that most of them are likely to be also sentenced to death. Back in 2015, an Iraqi court already sentenced an IS extremist, who came from Russia, to death.

All foreigners, including women who committed “crimes” against the people of Iraq “directly or through support” of terrorist groups will stand trial in accordance with Iraqi law, government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said earlier this week. He added that foreign nationals proven to have committed no crimes on Iraqi soil would be sent back to their home countries, local media report.

On Monday, an Iraqi court ordered the release and deportation of a French woman who joined Islamic State. Melina Bougedir, 27, was detained last summer as Iraqi troops took over the northern city of Mosul from extremists. She was sentenced to seven months in prison for entering Iraq illegally, but was then immediately released as the court ruled she already served her time during her detention.

Last week, a German teenage ‘Islamic State bride’ known as Linda Wenzel was convicted to six years in prison for her affiliation with the terrorist group. </s> Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Security services have arrested more than twenty Islamic State members in several operations in Nineveh province, while weapons and explosives were seized in their possession, security sources said on Saturday.

Speaking to BasNews website, Cap. Amir Watheq, from Nineveh police, said, “security troops arrested eight Islamic State members, possessing hand grenades in Makhmur, southeast of Mosul.”

“Troops cordoned off the area, where the militants were hiding and invaded their houses, then took them to Nineveh Operations Command headquarters for investigations.”

All hand grenades, in their possession, were confiscated.

In related news, Col. Khodier Saleh, of the Federal Police, said, “security services arrested an IS cell, composed of 15 members, which was planning to to attack troops deployed in western Mosul.”

“The cell members, were possessing weapons. All were arrested inside a tunnel,” he added.

Thousands of Islamic State militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.

Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks across Iraq against security troops. Security reports indicate that the militant group still poses threat against stability in the country.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced, in December, full liberation of Iraqi lands, declaring end of war against IS members.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry announces the arrest of six alleged Islamic State fighters including one woman in Mosul.