BAGHDAD: Iraq Friday executed 13 death row terrorists after Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi vowed a forceful retaliation to calm public anger over Daesh’s murder of abducted civilians.
While Iraqis have grown accustomed to the atrocities committed by Daesh, the killing of the eight civilians shocked the nation and doused hopes the extremists had been defeated.
For the first time, the authorities released photographs of the hangings, which came after Abadi on Thursday ordered the “immediate” executions of hundreds of convicted militants.
The justice ministry said Friday that the 13 convicts put to death at a prison in southern Iraq “had participated in armed operations with terrorist groups, in kidnappings, bombings and murders of civilians.”
Abadi’s office had earlier announced the execution of 12 convicts whose appeals were exhausted.
More than 300 people, including around 100 foreign women, have been condemned to death in Iraq and hundreds of others to life imprisonment for membership of Daesh, a judicial source said in April.
Abadi, who has faced charges of failing to respond in force to Daesh, ordered “the immediate punishment of terrorists condemned to death” whose appeals have been exhausted, his office said.
A photograph released by the justice ministry showed a group of blindfolded and handcuffed men sitting on the floor waiting to be executed.
Another showed several convicts being hanged at the prison in Nasiriyah.