Iraq executes 36 prisoners for mass killing of soldiers

The Iraqi Ministry of Justice on Sunday said it executed 36 convicted prisoners over charges of killing about 1,700 soldiers when Islamic State (IS) militants seized the city of Tikrit in June 2014, an Iraqi official television reported.

"The ministry of justice executed 36 prisoners in Nasriyah prison after they were found guilty in the crime of Speicher," state-run Iraqiya channel said, referring to the city of Nasriyah, the capital of Iraq's southern province of Dhi Qar.

In June 2014, armed Sunni insurgents, spearheaded by the IS group, an al-Qaida offshoot, launched a surprise offensive on Iraqi security forces and captured a large part of the country's northern and western territories after government troops abandoned their posts and military equipment.

Reports said that among the dozens of thousands of soldiers who abandoned their posts in June, some 1,700 soldiers who walked out of an air base, known as Camp Speicher north of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, were abducted and killed by IS militants.

The IS group later posted video footage and images showing the execution of Iraqi government soldiers.

Source : XINHUA