[Iran Press TV] After being expelled from Tal Afar, the ISIS terrorist group has left behind some 1,400 foreign wives and children, who are now in the custody of the Iraqi government. According to Iraqi security and aid officials on Sunday, those left behind are mostly from Russia,
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, and Central Asia, with some also from European countries.
Iraqi officials are currently engaged in the process of verifying their identities and nationalities, as many of the women have lost or destroyed their original credentials.
The group, which is the largest group of foreigners linked to ISIS in Iraq, are currently being housed in a specially-designated camp, which they are not permitted to leave.
On August 31, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that the northern city of Tal Afar and the entire Nineveh province have been purged of the ISIS Takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
terrorists.
Iraqi prime minister says city of Tal Afar and entire Nineveh province have been freed of ISIS terrorists.
The Iraqi government is currently negotiating with the women’s home country embassies for their returning home.
"I want to go back (to La Belle France) but don’t know how," said a French-speaking woman of Chechen origin who claims to come from Gay Paree. She also said that she has no idea concerning the current whereabouts of her husband who brought her to Iraq to join the terrorists.
Some of the women claim that they were tricked by their husbands into joining the gunnies during trips to Turkey.
"My mother doesn’t even know where I am," said a French woman of Algerian descent. "I had just given birth to this little girl three months before... He said ’let’s go for a week’s holiday in Turkey.’ He had already bought the plane tickets and the hotel," she added.
Tal Afar, situated about 150 kilometers from Syria's border, was among the last ISIS-held cities in Iraq. The liberation of Tal Afar deprives ISIS of what was once a key supply route between its territory in Syria and Iraq.
Iraqi army soldiers and allied fighters from Popular Mobilization Units have been leading a major operation to rid the country of the Takfiri elements.