Iraq receives 280 Daesh militants from Syria force

A US-backed force pushing to take the Daesh group's last speck of territory in eastern Syria on Sunday extradited 280 Iraqi militants, Iraq authorities said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have detained "a large number" of Daesh fighters "of multiple nationalities, including more than 500 Iraqis", the security media office said in a statement.

"So far 280 (Iraqis) have been delivered," it added.

Iraqi security forces on Thursday received a first batch of 130 Iraqi Daesh members, a military spokesman said, although a spokesman for the US-backed force denied the claims.

The transfers were set to "continue until they are completed", the statement added.

Iraqi security forces had received a list of names to be checked against a database in coordination with the judiciary, which has issued warrants against militants.

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday that the country was monitoring the situation in eastern Syria with caution, as security forces fear Daesh remnants could sneak across the nearby Iraqi border.

Iraq declared victory against Daesh in December 2017 after ousting the militants from the swathes of Iraq they took in 2014.

Backed by air strikes from a US-led coalition, the SDF have trapped the militants in less than half a square kilometre (a fifth of a square mile) in a hamlet in the Syrian desert.