Iraqi authorities arrest two suspects involved in Speicher massacre

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Baghdad Operations Command on Monday announced the arrest of two people accused of being involved in the notorious Speicher massacre in 2014.

The first man was arrested last Tuesday as he tried to enter Baghdad from a northern suburb while the second man was detained today in an area west of the Iraqi capital, the Baghdad Operations Command revealed.

“The first suspect was one of the dangerous perpetrators of the Speicher massacre and was detained in a pre-emptive operation north of the capital according to Article 4 of the anti-terrorism law,” a statement read.

According to a separate statement, the second man was arrested in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad.

Iraqi authorities did not provide the names of the two men or any further information about the arrests.

During their rise in 2014, the Islamic State (IS) stormed the US base of Camp Speicher, near the central city of Tikrit, and tricked Iraqi soldiers, who were held prisoners, into thinking they would be reunited with their families.

The Iraqi troops, 1,700 of them, were rounded up and taken to a riverbank where they were lined up and shot dead from close range before being buried in mass graves.

For nearly 10 months, the fate of the soldiers was unknown until the graves were discovered in the area.

In August 2017, an Iraqi court handed death sentences to 27 IS members for their role in the murder of the prisoners.

Fuad Masum, the President of Iraq, had approved the executions after footage of the massacre emerged on social media networks.

Human rights activists at the time criticized the decision to enforce the death penalty, claiming the defendants were not given proper legal representation.