BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities handed over 188 Turkish children of suspected Daesh members to Turkey on Wednesday at Baghdad airport, where they boarded a plane and prepared to fly home, officials from Iraq’s judiciary and UNICEF said.
Representatives of the Iraqi judiciary and the UN agency were present until the children got on the plane. UNICEF Regional Chief of Communications Juliette Touma told Reuters the aircraft had not yet taken off.
An Iraqi judiciary spokesman said the group included several that had “come of age” and been convicted and sentenced for illegally crossing the border. Children can be held responsible for crimes in Iraq from the age of nine.
“The central investigations court, which is responsible for the terrorism file and foreign suspects, has handed the Turkish side 188 children left behind by Daesh terrorists in Iraq,” said the spokesman, Judge Abdul-Sattar Al-Birqdar, in a statement.
Daesh is known to its detractors as Daesh.
An Iraqi foreign ministry official, a representative of the Turkish embassy in Baghdad and representatives of international organizations including UNICEF were present, Birqdar added.
Reuters reported in March that about 1,100 children of Daesh fighters are caught in the Iraqi justice system. The youngest stay with their mothers in prison, and at least seven children have died because of poor conditions.
Several hundred older children are being prosecuted for offenses ranging from illegally entering Iraq to fighting for Daesh.
Some 185 children aged between nine and 18 have already been convicted and received sentences from a few months to up to 15 years in juvenile detention in Baghdad.
Iraq is conducting trials of thousands of suspected Daesh fighters, including hundreds of foreigners, with many arrested as the group’s strongholds crumbled throughout Iraq.
Baghdad is keen for those who cannot be prosecuted to be sent home, but the issue is legally complicated and politically toxic, and many nations have so far refused to take them.
Iraqi President Barham Salih returned on Wednesday from a brief visit to Turkey where he met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
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Iraq hands over 188 Turkish children of suspected Daesh members
Iraq hands over 188 Turkish children of suspected Daesh members
- The figure includes ‘a small percentage’ who had ‘come of age’
- Children can be held responsible for crimes in Iraq starting the age of nine
Israel says it killed Hamas financial officer in Gaza
JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said Wednesday that it had identified a Hamas financial official it killed two weeks ago in a strike in the Gaza Strip.
Abdel Hay Zaqut, a financial official in Hamas’s armed wing, on December 13 in the same strike that killed military commander Raed Saad, seen by Israel as one of the architects of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said on Wednesday that Zaqut was killed while he was in a vehicle alongside Raed Saad in “a joint operation by the Israeli army and the Shin Bet,” Israel’s internal security agency.
Zaqut “belonged to the financial department of the armed wing” of Hamas, Adraee wrote on X.
“Over the past year, Zaqut was responsible for collecting and transferring tens of millions of dollars to Hamas’s armed wing with the aim of continuing the fight against the State of Israel,” he said.
Hamas’s leader for the Gaza Strip, Khalil Al-Hayya, confirmed on December 14 the death of Raed Saad and “his companions,” though he did not name Zaqut.
The Israeli army said Saad headed the weapons production headquarters of Hamas’s military wing and oversaw the group’s build-up of capabilities.
Since October 10, a fragile truce has been in force in the Gaza Strip, although Israel and Hamas accuse each other of violations.
The war began with Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 70,000 people in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, a figure the UN deems is credible.
Abdel Hay Zaqut, a financial official in Hamas’s armed wing, on December 13 in the same strike that killed military commander Raed Saad, seen by Israel as one of the architects of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said on Wednesday that Zaqut was killed while he was in a vehicle alongside Raed Saad in “a joint operation by the Israeli army and the Shin Bet,” Israel’s internal security agency.
Zaqut “belonged to the financial department of the armed wing” of Hamas, Adraee wrote on X.
“Over the past year, Zaqut was responsible for collecting and transferring tens of millions of dollars to Hamas’s armed wing with the aim of continuing the fight against the State of Israel,” he said.
Hamas’s leader for the Gaza Strip, Khalil Al-Hayya, confirmed on December 14 the death of Raed Saad and “his companions,” though he did not name Zaqut.
The Israeli army said Saad headed the weapons production headquarters of Hamas’s military wing and oversaw the group’s build-up of capabilities.
Since October 10, a fragile truce has been in force in the Gaza Strip, although Israel and Hamas accuse each other of violations.
The war began with Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 70,000 people in the Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, a figure the UN deems is credible.
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