Iraq PM orders ‘immediate’ execution of IS members on death row

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered the “immediate” execution of all Islamic State (IS) members on death row, a statement from his office said on Thursday.

Abadi “ordered the immediate execution of terrorists condemned to death whose sentences have passed the decisive stage,” a statement from his office said. At least 300 people, 100 of them foreign nationals, are expected to be executed.  

The order comes after IS executed six hostages following a three-day deadline given to Baghdad to release all Sunni female prisoners.

The Iraqi government rejected the extremist group’s demands and the hostages, who identified themselves as police and militiamen in a video, were executed and their dismembered bodies dumped on a road in Salahuddin Province where security forces found them on Wednesday.

Following news of the discovery of the corpses, the Iraqi Prime Minister promised to avenge the deaths of the IS hostages.

“Our security and military forces will take forceful revenge against these terrorist cells,” Abadi told senior military officials and ministers, according to Al Jazeera. “We promise that we will kill or arrest those who committed this crime.”

Baghdad is currently conducting trials for hundreds of foreign women and children who have been detained by Iraqi troops during military operations to liberate the country from the grip of the militants over the past year.

Following the emergence of the extremist group in Iraq and Syria in 2014, thousands of foreign nationals joined IS. Accompanying them were women who came from different parts of the world.

According to Iraq’s counterterrorism law, aiding or membership in the extremist group carries the penalty of life in prison or death.

Despite Abadi himself declaring a “final victory” over IS last December, the group continues to carry out random bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings in previously liberated areas.