A Baghdad court sentenced six Turkish women to death and a seventh to life in prison for membership in Daesh, a judicial source said yesterday.

The source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the women, all accompanied by small children in court, had surrendered to Kurdish peshmerga fighters after having fled Tal Afar, one of the last Daesh bastions to fall to Iraqi security forces last year.

The women told the court they had entered the country to join their husbands fighting for Daesh in the "caliphate" that the group declared in 2014 in territory straddling Iraq and Syria.

Iraq in February condemned another 15 Turkish women to death on the same charge.

Since January, a German woman and a woman from Turkey have also been handed the death penalty, in rulings that Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned as "unfair."

Experts estimate that 20,000 people are being held in jail in Iraq for alleged membership in Daesh. There is no official figure.

Iraq has detained at least 560 women and 600 children, identified as jihadist or relatives of suspected Daesh membership.

Separately, authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said in early February they had detained some 4,000 suspected Daesh members, including foreigners.

Iraq's anti-terrorism law empowers courts to convict people who are believed to have helped Daesh even if they are not accused of carrying out attacks.

It also allows the death penalty to be issued against anyone, including non-combatants, found guilty of belonging to Daesh.