Mosul, Feb 26: At least 16 Turkish women were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court for joining the Islamic State militant group, a judiciary spokesman said on Sunday. Iraq is conducting trials of hundreds of foreign women detained with hundreds of their children for supporting or joining the group as its strongholds crumble, the Guardian reported.

The central criminal court issued the sentences "after it was proven they belong to the Daesh (IS) terrorist group and they confessed to marrying Daesh elements or providing members of the group with logistical aid or helping them carry out terrorist attacks", said Judge Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar. All the verdicts were subject to appeal, he said.

Thousands of foreigners have fought on behalf of the IS in Iraq and Syria since 2014. Many foreign women came or were brought from overseas to join the militants. More than 1,300 women and children surrendered to Kurdish peshmerga in August after government forces expelled the jihadist group from the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar. Their numbers have since swelled to about 1,700 as more foreign nationals surrendered or were captured during operations to root out the militants, according to aid officials.

Iraq in December declared victory over the IS, which had seized control of nearly a third of the country in 2014. The group has been driven out of all population centers it once controlled on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border, but members have continued to carry out bombings and other attacks in Iraq.