Iraq says Ankara agrees to take back Turkish citizens among IS detainees moved from Syria

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister said on Monday Turkey had agreed to take back Turkish citizens from among thousands of Islamic State detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria when camps and prisons there were shut in recent weeks.

Iraq took in the detainees in an operation arranged with the United States after Kurdish forces retreated and shut down camps and prisons that had housed IS suspects for nearly a decade.

Baghdad has said it will try suspects on terrorism charges in its own legal system, but it has also repeatedly called on other countries to take back their citizens from among the detainees.

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told U.S. envoy Tom Barrack in a meeting that Iraq was in talks with other countries on the repatriation of their nationals, and had reached an agreement with Turkey.

A Turkish diplomatic source said Turkey appreciated Baghdad’s recent efforts to transfer more than 5,700 IS detainees from Syria to Baghdad.

"It appears that there are also Turkish citizens among those detainees. Turkiye is ready to engage with Iraqi authorities about Turkish citizens," the source said.

"Iraq’s efforts should set an example to the international community. It is essential that all foreign terrorist fighters be repatriated by countries of origin,” the source added.

In a separate statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Hussein said: "We would call the states across the world to recover their citizens who've been involved in terrorist acts so that they be tried in their countries of origin."

The fate of the suspected IS fighters, as well as thousands of women and children associated with the group, has become an urgent issue since the Kurdish force guarding them collapsed in the face of a Syrian government offensive.

At the height of its power from 2014-2017, Islamic State held swathes of Syria and Iraq in a self-proclaimed caliphate, ruling over millions of people and attracting fighters from other countries. Its rule collapsed after military campaigns by regional governments and a U.S.-led coalition.