Canada is probing claims two of the country's nationals were among a group of female Islamic State fighters captured in Iraq.

Amid the liberation of Mosul - once the de facto capital of the jihadists' self-declared caliphate - Iraqi forces are reported to have detained a unit of women militants, including German, Russian, Turkish and Canadian citizens.

Jocelyn Sweet, a spokesperson for Canada's foreign ministry, said: "We are aware of these media reports. Canadian officials are contacting local authorities and gathering additional information."

Officials in Germany are already investigating whether one of the group, found in a tunnel alongside weapons including suicide belts, is 16-year-old Linda Wenzel - a radicalised teenager who went missing from Saxony in July last year.

:: What is happening to the jihadi brides who joined Islamic State?


It is unclear what will happen to foreign IS recruits arrested in Iraq. It was initially thought they would be handed over to their home country's embassies and not kept in Iraq.

But France has insisted a woman detained in Mosul, alongside her four children aged from six months to eight years, should be prosecuted in Iraq rather than returned to Europe.

German IS girl arrested in Mosul

A French government spokesman said the mother, believed to have left her Paris suburb home with her children in 2015 to follow her husband to Syria then Iraq, must be tried by Iraqi courts over alleged collaboration with IS because she wasn't in Mosul "for tourism".

Her fate is likely to set a precedent for the thousands of Europeans who headed to join jihadists over the past few years.

The woman's lawyer has expressed fears she could face abuse or be used as a pawn by local politicians.

Iraq's prime minister Haider al-Abadi admitted on Tuesday his country's forces committed human rights violations during the nine-month campaign to free Mosul from IS.

Videos on social media have shown Iraqi soldiers throwing captured IS suspects off a high wall before shooting their bodies below.

Image: One of the women is reported to be 16-year-old German Linda Wenzel

Mr al-Abadi said: "Any violation against the law or any violation against a person's dignity is not acceptable and we will chase them (perpetrators) down. These are individual acts and not widespread and we will not tolerate such acts."

Hundreds of suspected IS militants captured in Mosul are being held in a cramped prison just outside the city.

Amid summer temperatures above 45C (110F), those captured are reported to have been detained in dark crowded rooms with no electricity or ventilation.

An Iraqi officer said: "Prisoners are infected with diseases, lots of health and skin problems, because they're not exposed to the sun. The majority can't walk. Their legs are swollen because they can't move."

Human Rights Watch have accused Iraqi forces of holding dozens of women and children with alleged links to IS at a "psychological and ideological rehabilitation" camp, with the organisation urging Iraq not to punish the entire families of IS fighters.