ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi security forces on Friday announced arresting two suspects for their alleged involvement in the Islamic State’s (ISIS) 2014 Camp Speicher massacre.
On June 12, 2014, around 1,700 Shiite cadets undergoing training at Camp Speicher in Salahaddin’s Tikrit were executed by ISIS militants, who had initially promised them safe passage.
The arrested suspects had “disappeared” around nine years ago after fleeing Iraq to a neighboring country, according to a statement from the Iraqi Joint Operations Command.
“Our heroic security forces and intelligence agencies and departments have pledged to our Iraqi people to track down criminals and terrorists, retaliate against them, and work to protect this country,” read the statement.
The Camp Speicher Massacre is considered to be one of ISIS’ most brutal crimes in Iraq. The United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL (UNITAD) said on June 2021 that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that the massacre “constituted a number of war crimes under international law.”
Dozens accused of taking part in the massacre have already been executed, including 31 men who were executed in January 2017 in a mass execution.
Iraq’s security media cell in July announced arresting Abdul Khaliq Khazal Sultan, a suspected ISIS militant and one of the executioners of the 2014 massacre.
A court in Baghdad in January sentenced 14 people to death for their alleged participation in the Camp Speicher massacre.
Following the 2017 mass execution, Amnesty International claimed that the men had confessed “under serious allegations of torture,” and that the verdicts against them were issued after “deeply flawed and speedy trials.”
