Iraq put to death 12 people convicted of terrorism hours after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for speedy executions in response to the kidnapping and killing of eight members of the security forces, the government said today.
Abadi had ordered late on Thursday ‘just retribution’ through faster executions of all those on death row for terrorism convictions who had exhausted their appeals.
‘Based on the orders of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, executions were carried out on Thursday of 12 convicted terrorists who have received final verdicts,’ a government spokesman said in a statement.
Iraq put to death 12 people convicted of terrorism hours after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for speedy executions in response to the kidnapping and killing of eight members of the security forces
Abadi (pictured) had ordered late on Thursday ‘just retribution’ through faster executions of all those on death row for terrorism convictions who had exhausted their appeals
Security forces on Wednesday found the bodies of eight men mutilated and rigged with explosives, two days after a deadline set by their Islamic State kidnappers expired.
The militants had kidnapped members of Iraq’s security forces and showed six of them in a video posted online on Saturday.
They threatened to kill them within three days if the government did not release female Sunni prisoners.
An interior ministry spokesman said autopsies showed the men were killed before the deadline expired and that the video was ISIS propaganda.
Abadi, who has faced charges of failing to respond in force to IS, ordered ‘the immediate punishment of terrorists condemned to death’ whose appeals have been exhausted, his office said.
‘Our security and military forces will take forceful revenge against these terrorist cells,’ he told senior military officials and ministers.
‘We promise that we will kill or arrest those who committed this crime,’ he added.
An interior ministry spokesman said autopsies showed the men were killed before the deadline expired and that the video was ISIS propaganda. Pictured: An ISIS sign is removed in Mosul last year
Abadi declared final victory over ISIS in December, but the group still operates from pockets along the border with Syria and has continued to carry out ambushes, assassinations and bombings across Iraq. Pictured: An ISIS mural in Mosul
Abadi declared final victory over the Sunni extremists in December, but the group still operates from pockets along the border with Syria and has continued to carry out ambushes, assassinations and bombings across Iraq.
Attacks by the group have picked up in recent weeks, especially on a highway connecting the capital, Baghdad, with the country’s north, where the men were taken.
In May it was reported that at least 40 women had been sentenced to death, while some 300 people linked to ISIS were put to death.