Iraq hangs 21 on terrorism charges in latest mass executions

Baghdad, November 16

Iraq hanged 21 convicted terrorists and murderers on Monday, an interior ministry statement said, the latest in a series of mass executions it has carried out since defeating the Islamic State group in 2017.

Among those executed at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya were people involved in two suicide attacks that killed dozens of people the northern town of Tal Afar, the statement said.

It gave no further details of the identities of the people who were executed or the crimes for which they were convicted.

Iraq has put hundreds of suspected jihadists on trial and carried out several mass executions since defeating Islamic State fighters in a 2014-2017 US-backed military campaign.

Human rights groups have accused Iraqi and other regional forces of inconsistencies in the judicial process and flawed trials leading to unfair convictions. Iraq says its trials are fair.

Islamic State captured a third of Iraq in 2014 and was largely defeated both there and in neighbouring Syria over the following three years. Reuters