BAGHDAD: Jihadist militants from the Daesh group posing as liberating security forces killed at least 15 civilians who welcomed them in central Mosul, officials said on Tuesday.
Wearing police uniforms, they entered parts of the Old City on Monday to trick residents into showing their support for the federal forces, the Joint Operations Command (JOC) and a local official said.
“Daesh terrorist gangs committed a brutal crime yesterday morning in an area of Mosul’s Old City,” the JOC said in a statement.
It said the jihadists, who are defending their last Mosul bastions against a huge six-month-old offensive by the security forces, wanted to “confound civilians who expressed joy and welcomed them with chanting.”
They killed women and children, the JOC said, “to make it clear the area was still under enemy control.”
The statement did not specify how many were killed in that manner but Hossameddin Al-Abbar, a member of Nineveh provincial council, told AFP at least 15 civilians were shot dead.
“Daesh members, some of them wearing federal police uniforms, entered the Al-Maidan and Corniche areas of the Old City,” he said.
“They were driving black vehicles and posing as liberators from the Iraqi forces,” Abbar added.
“When some families welcomed them, they arrested several of them. They executed at least 15 other people,” he said.
Daesh ‘executes’ at least 15 civilians in Mosul: officials
Daesh ‘executes’ at least 15 civilians in Mosul: officials
Iraq executes a former senior officer under Saddam for the 1980 killing of a Shiite cleric
- Al-Sadr was a leading critic of Saddam’s secular Baathist government whose dissent intensified after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran
- The cleric’s execution in 1980 became a symbol of oppression under Saddam
BAGHDAD: Iraq announced on Monday that a high-level security officer during the rule of Saddam Hussein has been hanged for his involvement in the 1980 killing of a prominent Shiite cleric.
The National Security Service said that Saadoun Sabri Al-Qaisi, who held the rank of major general under Saddam and was arrested last year, was convicted of “grave crimes against humanity,” including the killing of prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir Al-Sadr, members of the Al-Hakim family, and other civilians.
The agency did not say when Al-Qaisi was executed.
Al-Sadr was a leading critic of Iraq’s secular Baathist government and Saddam, his opposition intensifying following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, which heightened Saddam’s fears of a Shiite-led uprising in Iraq.
In 1980, as the government moved against Shiite activists, Al-Sadr and his sister Bint Al-Huda — a religious scholar and activist who spoke out against government oppression — were arrested. Reports indicate they were tortured before being executed by hanging on April 8, 1980.
The execution sparked widespread outrage at the time and remains a symbol of repression under Saddam’s rule. Saddam was from Iraq’s Sunni minority.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, authorities have pursued former officials accused of crimes against humanity and abuses against political and religious opponents. Iraq has faced criticism from human rights groups over its application of the death penalty.
