Eighteen people were arrested on warrants that had been issued in 2015, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
“One of them is implicated in the Speicher massacre, participating in the killing of hundreds of Iraqi citizens,” read the statement, adding that the suspect had been hiding in a neighboring country using a fake name and forged documents.
The statement did not give details on the identity of the 18 people arrested or where they were found.
The Camp Speicher Massacre is one of the most brutal crimes carried out by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq.
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 safety.
The United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL (UNITAD) said in June 2021 that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that the massacre “constituted a number of war crimes under international law.”
Dozens of people have been arrested in connection with the incident. In November, Iraqi security forces announced the arrest of two suspects and in July, Iraq’s security media cell announced the arrest of Abdul Khaliq Khazal Sultan, a suspected ISIS militant and one of the executioners of the 2014 massacre.
In January, a court in Baghdad sentenced 14 people to death for their alleged participation in the crime.
Multiple death sentences have already been carried out in connection with the case, including 31 men who were put to death in January 2017. Amnesty International criticized the mass execution, saying that the men had confessed “under serious allegations of torture,” and that the verdicts against them were issued after “deeply flawed and speedy trials.”
