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IRAQ

Islamic State children repatriated to Germany from Iraq

Germany has repatriated from Iraq several children of jailed jihadists, the foreign ministry said Friday, as the war against the so-called Islamic State (IS) group draws to a close.

Islamic State children repatriated to Germany from Iraq
FIle photo shows an Iraqi soldier in war-torn Mosul in 2017. Photo: DPA

“The number of minors already brought back to Germany has reached a high single-digit figure,” the Foreign Ministry source said, adding that the returns were carried out with the consent of the children's parents.

SEE ALSO: 'I was a little bit naive': German woman flees IS

They are now in the custody of their relatives in Germany, the source added. Among the first young returnees to Germany were three children who arrived with their 31-year-old mother at Stuttgart airport on Thursday, their lawyer Mahmut Erdem said in a statement.

They were taken into custody immediately, the lawyer said.

According to the Foreign Ministry, at least eight Germans were jailed in Iraq, after they were convicted over their membership of IS.

The Foreign Ministry said it was aware of cases of German nationals in custody in northern Syria, but added that it did not have direct consular access to them as the embassy in Damascus has been closed.

Nevertheless, the government is looking for ways to repatriate the German nationals, it added.

With the collapse of the last IS bastion in Syria last month, the fate of foreign fighters and their families has become a significant problem for governments as the conflict against IS draws to a close.

The German Interior Ministry has said the children are innocent victims, paving the way for their return.

France last month took in five orphans and is dealing with returns on a case-by-case basis.

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IS

France charges jihadi with murder in IS territory

France on Friday charged a man with murder days after his expulsion from Turkey, holding him in custody over crimes alleged to have taken place in jihadist-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria.

France charges jihadi with murder in IS territory
People walk under a billboard erected by the Islamic State (IS) group as part of a campaign in the IS controlled Syrian city of Raqqa in 2014. Photo: Raqa Media Center / AFP
Using the pseudonym “Abou Salman al Faransi”, 26-year-old Othman Garrido is believed to have arrived in the region in 2012, where anti-terror prosecutors (PNAT) say he committed “murder in connection with a terrorist undertaking” and joined a “terrorist conspiracy”.
   
He is believed to have played an important role in and have information on the French jihadist scene.
   
A judge on Friday ordered him jailed provisionally after he spent the week in police custody.
   
“Based on photographs of abuses where he is visible”, Garrido “was likely involved in other murders in Iraq and Syria” being probed in a separate investigation, PNAT said.
 
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Prosecutors suspect him of three murders in total, although they have not been able to precisely date the crimes.
   
France has had an arrest warrant out since 2016 for Garrido, a native of southern city Montpellier.
   
Turkish forces captured him near the Syrian border in July, and handed him over under a Paris-Ankara deal covering the return of French jihadists.
   
A youth court sentenced Garrido in 2017 to 15 years in jail for joining the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, where he trained and fought as well as attempting to incite violence by French Muslims.
 
   
After burning his French passport, Garrido urged Muslims to kill “infidels” in a seven-minute video distributed by IS' communications arm in 2014.
   
He was flanked in that recording by two other French jihadists using the pseudonyms Abou Ousama al Faransi and Abou Maryam al Faransi.   
 
Garrido's parents and two of his brothers have also received jailed sentences of 10 and 15 years. It is unclear whether his brothers, who also travelled to Syria, remain alive.
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