Iraq has carried out three executions of suspects in the Baghdad bombing seven years ago. Hundreds were injured and more than 300 people were killed. The three people who were hanged were, according to Iraqi authorities, involved in the attack, for which the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group claimed responsibility. The executions were carried out on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Shia’ al-Sudani said through his press service.
The prime minister met with some relatives of the victims of the 2016 attack on Monday. He spoke of a “just sentence” to the death penalty, but did not disclose the identity of the suspects. It is also unclear when exactly the suspects were convicted. According to the French news agency AFP, it is in any case Ghazwan al-Zawbaee, the suspected mastermind behind the organizational side of the attack. He has been in captivity in Iraq since 2021.
In 2016, terrorists detonated a car bomb in the Karrada district of the capital Baghdad. This happened shortly after the expulsion of the Sunni-inspired movement IS from the Iraqi city of Falluja. The terrorist attack was seen as a retaliatory act. Many Shiite Iraqis live in the area where the attack occurred. In addition to hundreds of injuries and deaths, the area turned into utter havoc. The then Interior Minister Mohammed Ghabban resigned as a result of the explosion.