Angry calls for revenge following Daesh murder of Iraqi security officers

Angry calls for revenge have followed the killing of eight security officers by Daesh in Iraq. Demands have been made for the immediate execution of convicted Daesh militants held by the government.

The bodies of the eight victims were found by Iraqi security forces on Wednesday in the Tuz Khurmatu district of Salahuddin Province. They were kidnapped last week when they were ambushed by Daesh gunmen on the road between Kirkuk and Baghdad. “The security forces made a great effort to find the victims,” Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Saad Maan told a news conference. He pointed out that autopsies have revealed that they were killed at least five days ago.

Daesh released a video on Monday, showing six of the kidnap victims and vowing to kill them if the Iraqi government did not release “Sunni” women detainees within three days. The forensic evidence now suggests that the men were possibly already dead when the video was released.

“We are determined to arrest the terrorists who killed the abducted security officers, and we already have clues about how to find them,” Maan explained, without giving further details.

In the Shia-majority province of Dhi Qar, local citizens and members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces demonstrated in the city of Nasiriyah, the provincial capital, to condemn the incident. They demanded the immediate execution of all Daesh militants already sentenced to death and held by the state, especially those in Nasiriyah Central Prison.

“Iraqi prisons are overcrowded with Daesh militants sentenced to death, but the government does not execute them,” said one demonstrator named by Anadolu as Noman Al-Husseini. “This encourages those still at liberty to launch more bloody attacks on security forces and civilians.”

Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Hamam Hamoudi also called on the government to execute Daesh prisoners, “especially their leaders and most prominent militants who have tortured and killed Iraqis.” In a statement seen by Anadolu, Hamoudi said that Iraqi President Fuad Masum should sign the death warrants for justice to be done. “These heinous murders must be met with a firm and immediate response. Leaving criminals without fair punishment provides the incentive for such brutal and inhuman crimes to be repeated.”

President Masum, meanwhile, said that the crime reaffirms the cowardly nature of the perpetrators of such criminal acts and proves their lack of the most basic moral values. He called for the security authorities to “take urgent and firm measures” to arrest those responsible so that they can be punished.

Daesh has recently intensified its armed operations against security officials and Popular Mobilisation Forces in eastern and northern areas of Iraq, even though the government announced in December that the country had been freed from the grip of the terrorists. However, it is believed that Daesh has sleeper cells scattered across Iraq and has reverted to its pre-2014 guerrilla tactics.