At Least 20% of Spaniards Fighting for IS Are Women: Reports

Twenty percent of Spanish citizens fighting for the Islamic State (IS) militant group are women, Spanish newspaper ABC reports.

MOSCOW, December 30 (Sputnik) – According to the newspaper, citing Spanish security and information services, at least eight out of the 40 Spanish nationals who are fighting on the side of the IS are women.

The Spanish women are recruited through social media, ABC adds. According to the news outlet, in recent months the jihadists had opened Facebook accounts in Spain specifically to recruit women. One such account was shut down by Spanish law enforcement.

According to ABC, recruit websites promise women who join the IS "pleasures that they will never find." The news outlet states that instead they will find "almost certain death or [a] life dedicated to sexual slavery."

IS, a jihadist group, has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern parts of Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories under its control.

In a bid to stop the militants, the United States set up an international coalition with some 60 nations directly or indirectly participating in airstrikes against IS positions in both Iraq and Syria.