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What is the fate of foreign IS fighters in Iraq?

Iraqi security forces arrested dozens of foreign fighters for the Islamic State during the battle of Mosul, but Baghdad must now decide their fate.
Members of an Iraqi Special forces intelligence team talk to a suspected Islamic State fighter in Mosul, Iraq November 27, 2016.  REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic - RTSTITF

BAGHDAD — As Iraqi forces raided the last Islamic State strongholds in Mosul's Old City, security forces arrested dozens of foreign fighters, including Russian, German and Chechen women who had joined the militant group.

Many other IS foreign fighters have returned to their home countries. The European Union's counterterrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove, said Aug. 9 that an estimated 5,000 European fighters, mostly from France and Belgium, had been trained in Syria and Iraq, and that one-third of them had returned home. France's interior minister said Aug. 6 that 271 French jihadi militants had returned from war zones in Iraq and Syria.

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