Authorities hold 12 Islamic State-linked children: minister

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi authorities are holding more than 12 Islamic State-affiliated children arrested in Mosul, a government minister has said, stressing on the issue’s sensitivity.

“Daesh (IS) children is a reality that we avoid discussing because it is highly sensitive, and some take it for an act of defamation,” Mohamed Shayya al-Sudani, Iraq’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, told Alsumaria TV on Wednesday.

The minister said his ministry had cooperated with security authorities in handling IS fighters’ children who are less than a year of age. “We bring them to Baghdad and subject them to care before investigating about their relatives through DNA tests,” Al-Sudani stated.

The minister said it was dangerous to leave unauthorized organizations to handle the issue away from the government’s legal channels.

Observers have said that Islamic State fighters’ families would pose a challenge to Iraqi authorities after the recapture of the group’s havens across the country.

Following the liberation of Mosul, IS’s largest stronghold in Iraq, early July, authorities in Nineveh province said they were isolating militants’ families in rehabilitation camps.

Since they took over large parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria, Islamic State fighters have notoriously drafted, trained and deployed a number of minors for combat duties, while holding others as human shields, according to international agencies and local authorities.

Source:iraqinews.com