Three men sentenced to death in Iraq hanged for their alleged involvement in attack which killed 323 people in Baghdad in July 2016 and was claimed by the jihadist group Islamic state (IK), the services of the Iraqi Prime Minister announced yesterday, Monday (27/8).
The head of government, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, made the announcement personally “the execution of the death sentences” imposed on “three of the principal criminals who had been convicted of their participation” in the attackaccording to the press release of his services.
He expressed himself while receiving yesterday families of victims of the “tragedy in Karanda”, the district that became the target of attacks with a vehicle packed with a huge amount of explosives.
That attack, on July 3, 2016, one of the deadliest in Iraq since the 2003 US military invasion, was carried out as the commercial district was packed with Iraqis shopping ahead of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that ends the fasting month of Ramadan.
In addition to the 323 people who were killed, another 200 were injured in the attack, which was claimed by IS jihadists, who at the time held much of Iraqi territory..
The vehicle the suicide bomber was driving was packed with plastic explosives and ammonium nitrate, Baghdad police said at the time.
The explosion itself killed a limited number of people, but caused a fire that trapped hundreds of people in the market, according to the same source.
The hangings announced by the Iraqi prime minister took place on Sunday night and yesterday Monday morning, according to the announcement of his services, which does not reveal the identities of the three convicts or the date they were sentenced.
According to an AFP source in the Iraqi government, Ghazwan al-Zaubai was among them. The Iraqi authorities had announced in October 2021 his arrest “outside the country” and had presented him as the “terrorist” responsible for the attack in Karanda.
“Low Intensity Guerrilla War”
After its meteoric rise to power in 2014, IS has seen its self-proclaimed “caliphate” crumble under repeated attacks from multiple directions in Iraq and Syria.
However, although Iraqi authorities declared “victory” over IS in late 2017, jihadist cells continue to launch sporadic attacks against members of the military and police, especially in rural and remote areas outside major urban centers.
In recent years, Iraqi courts have handed down death sentences or life sentences to hundreds of defendants, as the country’s criminal code provides for the death penalty for anyone who joins the ranks of a “terrorist organization” whether they have fought or not.
In 2022, Iraq ranked sixth among the world’s most executing states, according to an Amnesty International report: authorities carried out at least 11 executions. In the same year, at least 41 people were sentenced to death, according to the same source.
In 2020, at least 45 people were executed, according to the NGO.
A UN report released in July stressed that the “main structure” of IS “continues” to exist, counting “from 5,000 to 7,000 members” in Iraq and Syria, “the majority of whom are fighters”.
However, according to the same source, “the anti-terrorist action of the Iraqi forces continued to reduce the activity of Daesh (s.s. acronym of IS in Arabic), which, however, continues the low-intensity guerilla war.”
In March, a senior Iraqi military officer estimated that IS still had 400 to 500 fighters active in Iraq.
For Iraqi justice, “terrorism” as well as premeditated killings and drug trafficking attract the death penalty for the perpetrators.
Source: News Beast
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