BAGHDAD, April 26 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi court on Thursday sentenced five foreign women to death for joining the Islamic State (IS) terror group, a judicial spokesman said.

"The Central Criminal Court sentenced to death by hanging three female Kyrgyz citizens and two female Azerbaijani citizens for joining the terrorist IS organization," Abdul Sattar al-Biraqdar, spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, said in a statement.

He said that the court issued verdicts of life imprisonment for five more foreign females: two Russians, two Azerbaijani citizens and one French.

"The female convicts joined the IS terrorist organization and were involved in criminal acts against Iraqi forces," Biraqdar noted.

Despite defeat in Iraq in late 2017, many IS remnants remain at large in the hideouts of the Arab country.

The increase in executions in Iraq has sparked calls for abolishing capital punishment from the UN, the European Union and some international human rights groups, citing the lack of transparency in Iraqi courts.

Death penalty in Iraq was suspended on June 10, 2003, but was reinstated from August 8, 2004.