Iraq Executes 36 ISIS and Al Qaeda
Militants In Mass Execution
More than three dozen ISIS and Al Qaeda
militants were hanged by Iraq on Thursday after being on death row for
terrorism charges.
The 38 executions, which took place at a prison in the southern Iraqi
city of Nassiriya, were the most in a single day since Sept. 24, when
Iraq killed 42 militants due to terrorism charges for crimes such as car
bombings and murders of Iraqi security forces, Reuters reported.
Iraq’s justice ministry said all of the executed militants were members
of ISIS and their appeal options were exhausted. But a government
official told AFP that some of the militants belonged to Al Qaeda. One
of the terrorists had Swedish citizenship, a prison source told AFP.
"The prison administration executed on Thursday in the presence of
Justice Minister Haidar al-Zameli, in Nasiriyah prison, 38 death row
prisoners belonging to [Al Qaeda or ISIS] accused of terrorist
activities," Dakhel Kazem, a provincial council senior official, told
AFP.
Iraq last week declared victory over ISIS after more than three years of
fighting.
"All Iraqi lands are liberated from terrorist [ISIS] gangs and our
forces completely control the international Iraqi-Syrian border," Lt.
Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah had said in a statement.