ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq on Friday reaffirmed its commitment to securing the rights of the families of the estimated 1,700 unarmed cadets massacred by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014, the country’s premier said on the anniversary of the tragedy widely known as the Speicher massacre. This while Iraqi authorities also reported that the remains of about 1,250 victims have been recovered, while others remain missing.
“On June 12 each year, we stand in reverence and solemnity before a painful memory, recalling one of the most heinous crimes in Iraq’s modern history,” Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said in a statement.
“This tragedy will remain a testament to the scale of criminality practiced by terrorism against our people,” he added, noting that “the memory of the Speicher martyrs will remain present in the conscience of all Iraqis, as a symbol of sacrifice and resilience, and a testament to unity in confronting extremism.”
The newly appointed premier further noted that his government “places the rights of the martyrs’ families at the forefront of its priorities” and is “working with all available resources to guarantee their legal and moral rights, support their families, and honor their sacrifices in a manner befitting their national standing.”
ISIS on June 12, 2014, raided Camp Speicher - a former American base turned Iraqi Air Academy near Tikrit, the capital of Iraq’s central Salahaddin province - capturing thousands of young, unarmed Iraqi military cadets, who were attempting to flee after senior commanders abruptly evacuated amid the rapid collapse of security in the region.
The extremist militants then separated the cadets based on religion, targeting primarily Shiite Muslims, and over the course of about three days, ISIS executed an estimated 1,700 of them. Victims were lined up along mass trenches in the desert and shot, while others were killed one by one on the banks of the Tigris River and their bodies thrown into the water.
During a May 2021 briefing before the United Nations Security Council, Karim Khan, then special adviser and head of the UN’s Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS/Daesh (UNITAD), said that evidence collected on the incident confirmed “the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide against Shiite Muslims.”
For his part, Moeen al-Kadhimi, an Iraqi lawmaker and head of the Speicher Martyrs Commemoration Committee, which operates under the prime minister’s office, said on Friday that “the exhumation of the remains of Speicher massacre victims has so far led to the recovery of 1,250 bodies,” which “were handed over to their families after undergoing DNA testing.”
He added that efforts are also underway to hold the perpetrators, who include “remnants of the toppled Ba’ath regime and terrorists,” accountable, noting that these efforts have led to the arrest of more than 150 suspects, “72 of whom have been executed after conviction, while the rest remain awaiting their sentences.”
