ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council on Thursday announced that it had sentenced to death three Islamic State (ISIS) members it said were responsible for attacks on security forces.
The militants carried out attacks on security forces in Anbar and Salahaddin provinces and wanted to “create fear and panic among civilians,” according to the court.
They were sentenced to death for participating in the commission of a terrorist act as defined under the 2005 Terrorism Law.
Iraqi forces have intensified their anti-ISIS operations across the country in recent months, particularly in the disputed areas.
The army’s Joint Operations Command announced on Thursday that at least six suspected ISIS members, including a leader, were killed in an operation in Kirkuk province.
ISIS seized control of swathes of Iraqi land in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to carry out bombings, hit-and-run attacks, and abductions across several provinces.
Thousands of people have been detained across Iraq since 2014 for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, and hundreds have been executed. Human rights monitors have criticized the trials, saying they depend on confessions obtained through torture, they do not investigate specific charges such as genocide, and they exclude the victims, thereby denying them justice.
