madaresharghi [1]
Iraq is holding up to 50 Saudi members of Daesh arrested during the latest battles between security forces and the terror group.
London-based The New Arab quoted, Mansour al-Baiji, a parliament member close to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, as saying that more than 50 Saudis belonging to Daesh were arrested, iraqinews.com reported.
He said “the issue of those detainees is purely judicial and is not open to any negotiations because they are involved in crimes against Iraqis”.
Another official from the Interior Ministry told the newspaper that the number of foreign terrorists arrested during battles in the north and west has risen to more than 400 from Arab, European and Asian nationalities.
He added that Saudi detainees come on top, numbering 51.
Detainees include Moroccans, Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese, Syrians, Chechens, Tajikistanis, Turks and Pakistanis.
The official told the paper they had entered Iraq through the Syrian borders. He, too, reiterated that Iraq will handle them judicially instead of extraditing them.
Justice Ministry sources told the newspaper that non-Iraqi terrorists are incarcerated in special wards, with their home countries informed of their arrests.
Saudi Arabia has been widely accused of providing the Daesh terror group with ideological and financial backing.
The Takfiri outfit invaded Iraq in 2014 and overtook around a third of the country’s expanse in exceptionally brutal attacks.
Iraqi armed forces then started to reverse Daesh’s territorial gains one after another. They managed to retake all the lost territory last month with the help of volunteer forces and Iranian military advisors.
The Iraqi government declared the end of war against Daesh last week.