Iraq executes 36 jihadists for Camp Speicher massacre of Shiite recruits
The execution took place by hanging. The militiamen are members of the Islamic State, who attacked the military training base in 2014. A massacre published online by Daesh which had provoked anger and outrage in the country. Criticism of activists and pro-human rights NGOs that denounce summary trials.
Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Iraqi authorities hanged 36 men sentenced to death for the 2014 " Camp Speicher massacre” which killed about 1,700 army recruits at the former US military base. The the base, located near Tikrit - about 140 km north-west of Baghdad – was attacked by the Islamic State militiamen (IS) during the initial phase of their ascent in northern Iraq.
At the time the massacre - which killed a large group of mainly young Shiites - had sparked indignation and anger in the country and contributed to mobilizing Shiite militias in the fight against the jihadists.
Later Daesh militiamen[Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, IS] released photos and videos of the massacre; after one year, after the reconquest of the city, the Iraqi authorities have also found mass graves in which the soldiers were buried and made dozens of arrests.
A government spokesman in Dhiqar confirms that "the execution of 36 defendants" authors of the "crime" was "carried out this morning in Nassiriya prison", in the south of the country, by "hanging." Of the recruits massacred by jihadists, at least 400 were from the province of Dhiqar.
The executions - criticized by activists and pro-human rights organizations because the result of summary trials - were carried out yesterday in the presence of the Iraqi Minister of Justice Haidar al-Zamili.
For months Tikrit, hometown of Saddam Hussein, had been under the control of the Caliphate. The day after its re-conquest by the Iraqi troops, the atrocities committed by militant jihadists in the course of employment emerged.
Saddam's nephew, Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan, who had become an IS commander, was killed in the city.
Those executed yesterday were all of Iraqi nationality and were sentenced last February.
At the time of the assault at Camp Speicher jihadist militants had imprisoned thousands of people. Later members of the Shiite community were isolated and loaded onto trucks. They were transported to a distant place, made to lie face down and executed (in the photo) with a single shot to the neck. The bodies were then thrown into mass graves that had been dug previously.
Along with the call to arms of the Iraqi Shiite leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the massacre at Camp Speicher was one of the key factors that led to the mass recruitment of thousands of members of the Shiite community in the fight against Daesh.
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