BAGHDAD, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces received Friday a batch of 200 Islamic State (IS) militants captured by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in neighboring Syria, a security source said.
"Iraqi security forces have received 200 IS militants, who are Iraqi nationals, from the Kurdish-led SDF," an officer from al-Jazira Operations Command, responsible for security in Iraq's western province of Anbar, told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The officer said "the detainees were transferred to the prisons of the Interior Ministry for interrogation and prosecution by the Iraqi judiciary."
With the latest batch of the IS detainees, Iraq has so far received four batches of IS militants captured and extradited by the SDF, bringing the number of detainees handed over to Iraq to 680, the officer added.
The handover process between Iraqi forces and the SDF has been carried out through cooperation between the Iraqi army and the Iraqi intelligence service, according to media reports.
In February, the SDF began extraditing the captured IS militants to Iraqi forces after the liberation of the last IS stronghold of al-Baghouz, which was the last IS-held area in the eastern Euphrates River region in Syria's eastern Deir al-Zour province.
