Baghdad: Iraq has executed 13 people including 11 convicted on charges relating to “terrorism,” the justice ministry said Monday.
They included individuals responsible for car bombings, “killings of security forces personnel” and kidnappings, it said in a statement, without specifying dates, locations or other details of the attacks.
The executions are the first since the beginning of the year in Iraq, which according to rights group Amnesty International put to death at least 111 people in 2017.
On December 15, 38 people sentenced under Iraq’s terrorism law were hanged in the country’s Nasiriyah prison.
Three months earlier, 42 others were hanged at the same prison.
Iraq faces regular criticism from diplomats and rights groups over death sentences handed down almost daily under its terror laws.
Some 20,000 people were arrested during a years-long offensive by Iraqi forces battling to retake swathes of the country from Daesh.
Many have been sentenced to death but not yet executed.
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Iraq executes 11 convicted of ‘terrorism’: ministry
Iraq executes 11 convicted of ‘terrorism’: ministry
- Iraqi justice ministry says thirteen people have been executed
- Individuals executed were involved in car bombings and attacks on security personnel, says Iraq's justice ministry
Lebanon close to completing disarmament of Hezbollah south of Litani River, says PM
BEIRUT: Lebanon is close to completing the disarmament of Hezbollah south of the Litani River, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Saturday, as the country races to fulfil a key demand of its ceasefire with Israel before a year-end deadline.
The US-backed ceasefire, agreed in November 2024, ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and required the disarmament of the Iran-aligned militant group, starting in areas south of the river adjacent to Israel.
Lebanese authorities, led by President Joseph Aoun and Salam,
tasked
the US-backed Lebanese army on August 5 with devising a plan to establish a state monopoly on arms by the end of the year.
“Prime Minister Salam affirmed that the first phase of the weapons consolidation plan related to the area south of the Litani River is only days away from completion,” a statement from his office said.
“The state is ready to move on to the second phase — namely (confiscating weapons) north of the Litani River — based on the plan prepared by the Lebanese army pursuant to a mandate from the government,” Salam added.
The statement came after Salam held talks with Simon Karam, Lebanon’s top civilian negotiator on a committee overseeing the Hezbollah-Israel truce.
Since the ceasefire, the sides have regularly accused each other of violations, with Israel questioning the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and even in the capital.
Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group, has tried to resist the pressure — from its mainly Christian and Sunni Muslim opponents in Lebanon as well as from the US and Saudi Arabia — to disarm, saying it would be a mistake while Israel continues its air strikes on the country.
Israel has publicly urged Lebanese authorities to fulfil the conditions of the truce, saying it will act “as necessary” if Lebanon fails to take steps against Hezbollah.
The US-backed ceasefire, agreed in November 2024, ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and required the disarmament of the Iran-aligned militant group, starting in areas south of the river adjacent to Israel.
Lebanese authorities, led by President Joseph Aoun and Salam,
tasked
the US-backed Lebanese army on August 5 with devising a plan to establish a state monopoly on arms by the end of the year.
“Prime Minister Salam affirmed that the first phase of the weapons consolidation plan related to the area south of the Litani River is only days away from completion,” a statement from his office said.
“The state is ready to move on to the second phase — namely (confiscating weapons) north of the Litani River — based on the plan prepared by the Lebanese army pursuant to a mandate from the government,” Salam added.
The statement came after Salam held talks with Simon Karam, Lebanon’s top civilian negotiator on a committee overseeing the Hezbollah-Israel truce.
Since the ceasefire, the sides have regularly accused each other of violations, with Israel questioning the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and even in the capital.
Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group, has tried to resist the pressure — from its mainly Christian and Sunni Muslim opponents in Lebanon as well as from the US and Saudi Arabia — to disarm, saying it would be a mistake while Israel continues its air strikes on the country.
Israel has publicly urged Lebanese authorities to fulfil the conditions of the truce, saying it will act “as necessary” if Lebanon fails to take steps against Hezbollah.
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