Iraq executes 13 death row ISIS terrorists to avenge civilian killings

Baghdad: Iraq said that it executed 13 death row jihadists after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi vowed a forceful retaliation to calm public anger over the Islamic State group’s murder of abducted civilians.
While Iraqis have grown accustomed to the atrocities committed by IS, the killing of the eight civilians shocked the nation and doused hopes the jihadists had been defeated.
For the first time, the authorities released photographs of the hangings, which came after Abadi ordered the “immediate” executions of hundreds of convicted jihadists.
The justice ministry said Friday that the 13 convicts put to death at a prison in southern Iraq “had participated in armed operations with terrorist groups, in kidnappings, bombings and murders of civilians”.
It said that another group of 64 convicts could also be put to death after they lost an appeal for a stay of execution.
More than 300 people, including around 100 foreign women, have been condemned to death in Iraq and hundreds of others to life imprisonment for membership of IS, a judicial source said in April.
Abadi faced harsh criticism on social networks by Iraqis who accused him of failing to respond in force to the jihadists.
On Friday Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani joined the fray, blaming the government for failing “to take into consideration appeals by families to act quickly and save” the victims.
Under pressure, Abadi on Thursday ordered “the immediate punishment of terrorists condemned to death” whose appeals have been exhausted, his office said.
A photograph released by the justice ministry showed a group of blindfolded and handcuffed men sitting on the floor waiting to be executed.
Another showed several convicts being hanged at the prison in Nasiriyah.