Iraq has hanged three people convicted of involvement in a vehicle bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 300 people and injured hundreds in 2016.

It was the deadliest single bombing in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

The Islamic State group (IS) said it had carried out the attack.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's office did not name those executed or say when they had been sentenced. The executions were carried out on Sunday and Monday, it said.

A government source told AFP news agency that Ghazwan al-Zawbaee, held to be the IS mastermind behind the attack, was among those put to death. Zawbaee had been captured and returned to Iraq in 2021.

The prime minister informed victims' families that "the rightful punishment of death sentence" had been carried out against "three key criminals found guilty of their involvement in the terrorist bombing", his office said.

 

On 3 July 2016 a vehicle filled with explosives was blown up next to a crowded shopping centre in Karrada, a mainly Shia Muslim area of the Iraqi capital.

People had been enjoying a night out after breaking their daily fasts for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Many of the victims were killed by a fire that ripped through the building after the bomb blast.

Interior Minister Mohammed Ghabban resigned in the wake of the blast.

The then-Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, accused Zawbaee of being the "primary culprit" behind that attack and "many others".

IS., a Sunni Muslim group, once controlled 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from eastern Iraq to western Syria and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.

 

Despite the group's defeat on the battlefield in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, it is estimated that thousands of militants remain active in both countries.

In March, the UN estimated that IS still had "5,000 to 7,000 members and supporters" across Iraq and neighbouring Syria, "roughly half of whom are fighters".

 

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May they enjoy their 70 virgin, men. 

I hope they botched the hanging so those murdering thugs died slowly and painfully 

I find it interesting that 3 young ladies are grief stricken while one in the photo is unemotional.

1 hour ago, EVENKEEL said:

I find it interesting that 3 young ladies are grief stricken while one in the photo is unemotional.

Well only three were hanged. Perhaps she wasn't personally invested in any way.

Edited August 29, 20232 yr by Yeah rightio

6 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

I find it interesting that 3 young ladies are grief stricken while one in the photo is unemotional.

She has the look of saying those men were pigs.

6 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

I find it interesting that 3 young ladies are grief stricken while one in the photo is unemotional.

 BBC have used a Getty image with title: "Iraqi women mourn at the site of the bombing back in 2016" - note 'at the site', not at the execution.

Edited August 29, 20232 yr by gomangosteen

7 hours ago, JeffersLos said:

May they enjoy their 70 virgin, men. 

I am rather hopeful they got their 70 men in reversal prior to their death 

15 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

I find it interesting that 3 young ladies are grief stricken while one in the photo is unemotional.

British Moslems reading their GCSE results.

Good.