BAGHDAD, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi Tuesday said that Islamic State (IS) militants are besieged in neighboring Syria and are trying to escape.
"Daesh (IS militants) are surrounded in Syria and trying to exploit any gap, but we will not allow any infiltration to Iraq," Abdul Mahdi told a press conference after weekly cabinet meeting.
He said that his government is dealing cautiously with the file of IS families in Syria, who have been transferred to Iraq to safeguard the security of the country.
The security authorities are working on sorting out the Iraqi families who were forced to live in the besieged area in Syria and those Iraqi nationals who are families of Daesh militants, Abdul Mahdi said.
He said that the Iraqi authorities will scrutinize all the people who have been received from Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
During the past few days, the Iraqi security forces reportedly said that they have received 150 IS militants on February 21 and a second batch of 180 on February 23, who were captured by the U.S.-backed SDF.
Last week, Abdul Mahdi said that most of IS militants remaining in Syria are Iraqi citizens, asserting that Iraqi forces are closely following the situation inside Syria.
"We will wait and watch the movements in Syria, and it is supposed that Daesh militants would surrender and most of them are Iraqi nationals," Abdul Mahdi said.
The handover of IS militants to Iraqi authorities came after the battles of liberating the last IS stronghold in Baghouz, which was the last IS-held area in the eastern Euphrates River region in Syria's eastern Deir al-Zour province.
