Iraq executed 12 Daesh militants on the orders of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Thursday. The killings come in retaliation for the murder of eight Daesh captives, who the group previously claimed to be Iraqi police officers.
Abadi ordered the “immediate” execution of hundreds of convicted jihadists after the bodies of eight people turned up decomposing and strapped with explosives off a highway north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
“By order of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, 12 terrorists sentenced to death (whose appeals were exhausted) were executed on Thursday,” a statement from the Prime Minister's office cited by the Times of israel for a Friday story said. It's unclear how they were executed, but death sentences for terrorism charges are usually conducted by hanging in Iraq.
More than 300 people, including some 100 foreign-born women, have been sentenced to death in Iraq, while hundreds of others face life behind bars for their membership in Daesh, the Times of israel has reported.
Most of the women are from Turkey or former Soviet republics.
“We promise that we will kill or arrest those who committed this crime,” Abadi told senior military officials Thursday, just a day after the bodies turned up. “Our security and military forces will take forceful revenge against these terrorist cells,” he said, vowing to kill the remaining terrorists whose appeals have been exhausted.
Of the eight slain Daesh captives, six had appeared in an…
