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.
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
Second drone in 24 hours found crashed in northwest Turkiye
- The authorities have pointed the finger at Russia for an unmanned aerial vehicle discovered on Friday near the city of Izmit
ISTANBUL: A drone of unknown origin has been found in Turkiye, less than a day after another unmanned aerial vehicle of suspected Russian origin crashed in the northwest, Turkish media reported on Saturday.
According to several independent television networks and the Cumhuriyet newspaper, the drone was found in an empty field near the town of Balikesir, some three hours southwest of Istanbul.
The Turkish authorities had yet to react to the news, but the Halk TV and Haberturk broadcasters reported that the drone was transported to Ankara for analysis.
Citing farmers, several media outlets reported that the crash appeared to have taken place days ago.
The incident, the third of its kind since Monday, comes after Turkiye warned both Russia and Ukraine against letting their ongoing war spill over elsewhere in the region.
The authorities have pointed the finger at Russia for an unmanned aerial vehicle discovered on Friday near the city of Izmit, around 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the Black Sea, which has seen strikes on ships in recent weeks.
According to the Turkish interior ministry, which has opened an investigation, the drone “is believed to be of Russian-made Orlan-10 type used for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes according to initial findings.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned against the Black Sea becoming an “area of confrontation” between Russia and Ukraine, which occupy the opposite shores of the body of water to Turkiye.
