Image caption Kimberly Rivera fled to Canada before her redeployment to Iraq in 2007

A US army soldier who fled to Canada five years ago to avoid serving in Iraq has been arrested in the US after losing her deportation case.

Kimberly Rivera, a mother of four, had claimed refugee status in Canada, but she was ordered to leave last month.

On Thursday she voluntarily went to a border crossing in New York State, where she was placed into military custody, anti-war campaigners say.

She faces between two and five years in prison, her lawyer said.

Ms Rivera served in the Iraq war in 2006, but on her return to the US said she had become disillusioned with its cause and thought it was "immoral".

She went to Canada with her husband and children while on leave and between deployments in 2007.

In 2009 Canada ordered her deportation, a decision over which Ms Rivera lost an appeal.

Ms Rivera presented herself at the border between Gananoque in Ontario and Fort Drum in New York, according to the War Resisters Support Campaign, which has been backing Ms Rivera and other veterans who have defected.

The group says an estimated 200 military personnel resisted the Iraq war by fleeing to Canada.

Two men were deported to the United States in 2008. They were handed sentences of about one year each.