Baghdad: Iraqi government has executed 36 Islamic State (Isis) fighters, as punishment for the notorious Camp Speicher massacre of 1,700 soldiers. At least 1,566 people comprised mostly of Shia military cadets and other soldiers were gunned down near the former US Army base in Tikrit, on 12 June 2014.
Iraqi president Fuad Masum approved the death penalty for the convicted men by mass hanging, despite protests from human rights groups. Forty of the 47 defendants who were accused of involvement in the massacre were sentenced to death earlier in February 2016 at the central criminal court in Baghdad.
Survivors of the massacre say they were rounded up for slaughter by the extremists divided into religious sects before being packed onto trucks and told they would be returned to their families. Instead they were taken to a nearby riverbank, executed with machine guns and buried in a shallow grave.
A spokesman for the governor’s office in Dhiqar, the province of which Nasiriyah is the capital said.”The executions of 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were carried out this morning in Nasiriyah prison.
Abdelhassan Dawood said. “The governor of Dhiqar, Yahya al-Nasseri, and Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili were present to oversee the executions.”
He added. “They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the president approved the executions.”
Those executed on Sunday, all believed to be Iraqi citizens. Camp Speicher surrendered after it was surrounded by jihadists.