Calamitous Babylon operation the result of ‘false information’: Iraq judiciary

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s top judiciary announced that the deadly operation that resulted in the deaths of 20 members of the same family last week resulted from incorrect intelligence motivated by a “family dispute,” Iraqi state media reported on Monday. 

A judge investigating the case questioned 13 individuals for providing “false information” to the security forces, including the nine officers, three agents, and the main informant who had a “family dispute” with one of the victims, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council announced. 

The main informant was the nephew and son-in-law of one of the victims, Kurdistan 24 previously learned. 

A significant number of Iraqi Security Forces, including elite units, were dispatched on Thursday to arrest two suspected individuals charged with terrorism in Al-Rashayed village in central Babylon province, south of capital Baghdad, state media initially reported. 

When the forces arrived at the house, the head of the household had a firefight with the soldiers. As a result, 20 members of the family, including a baby, were killed, sources told Kurdistan 24.

Eyewitnesses and relatives of the victims in the area refuted the government claims that the house owner was “harboring” terrorists or engaged in illicit drug dealing. 

On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said that the government investigated “Babylon’s bloody crime.” 

The province police chief was sacked after the deadly incident, the interior minister announced when he visited the site on Friday.