BAGHDAD, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi authorities have handed 33 children from families of the Islamic State (IS) militants to Russia following the defeat of the extremist group in Iraq and Syria, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Monday.
"In coordination with the Russian Embassy in Iraq, the Iraqi authorities sent 33 Russian children to the Russian Federation on July 10," said Ahmed al-Sahaf, ministry spokesman, in a statement.
"This process took place after necessary legal measures to ensure their sponsorship and legal guarantees to protect their rights," the statement added.
So far, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry has sent 473 children from IS families of various nationalities including Russian, Tajik, Azerbaijani, German, French, Georgian, Belarusian, Finnish, Ukrainian and Turkish, according to the statement.
The ministry calls upon all states to intensify efforts to receive their nationals who are children staying with their mothers in Iraqi rehabilitation services, in addition to those whose sentences have expired.
Thousands of foreign fighters from different countries joined the IS group which established a self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The extremist group lost its urban areas in Iraq in 2017, and in eastern Syria earlier this year.
