Six Iraqis on Death Row Executed, Three for ‘Terrorism’

Members of the Iraqi police. (AFP file photo)
Members of the Iraqi police. (AFP file photo)
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Six Iraqis on Death Row Executed, Three for ‘Terrorism’

Members of the Iraqi police. (AFP file photo)
Members of the Iraqi police. (AFP file photo)

Six Iraqis sentenced to death, three for “terrorism”, were hanged Monday in a prison in southern Iraq, a medical source told AFP.

The source said the hangings took place in Nasiriyah prison, where death row prisoners are held.

Those not executed for “terrorism” were sentenced over “criminal cases”.

Rights group Amnesty International says it recorded more than 45 executions in Iraq last year, including many of people accused of belonging to the ISIS group.

Since Baghdad officially declared victory over ISIS in 2017, Iraqi courts have sentenced hundreds to death for crimes perpetrated by the extremists who had set up a so-called “caliphate” in territory seized in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Only a small proportion of the sentences have been carried out, as they must be approved by the president.

Barham Salih, who has held the post since 2018, is known to be personally against capital punishment.

According to an AFP tally, at least 14 people sentenced for “terrorism” have been executed in Iraq since the start of the year, all at the Nasiriyah prison.

Earlier this month, a man who murdered a senior Iraqi official in broad daylight was sentenced to death amid revulsion over the government’s failure to halt a wave of assassinations.

In January, an official from Iraq’s presidency told AFP more than 340 execution orders “for terrorism or criminal acts” were ready to be carried out.



Sudanese Coalition Led by Paramilitary RSF Announces Parallel Government

FILE - An army soldier walks in front of the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, after it was taken over by Sudan's army, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - An army soldier walks in front of the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, after it was taken over by Sudan's army, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo, file)
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Sudanese Coalition Led by Paramilitary RSF Announces Parallel Government

FILE - An army soldier walks in front of the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, after it was taken over by Sudan's army, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - An army soldier walks in front of the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, after it was taken over by Sudan's army, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo, file)

A Sudanese coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on Saturday a parallel government, a move fiercely opposed by the army that could drive the country further towards partition as a two-year-old civil war rages.

The government led by RSF General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, was announced west of the country.

The RSF and its allies signed in March a transitional constitution outlining a federal, secular state divided into eight regions, Reuters said.

The RSF controls much of the west of the country such as the vast Darfur region and some other areas but is being pushed back from central Sudan by the army, which has recently regained control over the capital Khartoum.

The military led by career army officer General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had condemned the idea of the RSF creating a parallel government and promised to keep fighting until it controls all of Sudan, which has been plagued by conflicts, coups, poverty and hunger.

In February, the RSF and other allied rebel leaders agreed in Kenya to form a government for a "New Sudan," aiming to challenge the army-led administration's legitimacy and secure advanced arms imports.

Dagalo, a former militia leader and one of Sudan's wealthiest people, known as Hemedti, was hit with sanctions by the US, which accused him of genocide earlier this year.

He had previously shared power with Burhan after veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir's ouster in 2019. However, a 2021 coup by the two forces ousted civilian politicians, sparking a war over troop integration during a planned transition to democracy.

Burhan was sanctioned in January by the US which accused him of choosing war over negotiations to bring an end to the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.

The ongoing conflict has devastated Sudan, creating an "unprecedented" humanitarian crisis in the country, with half the population facing spreading hunger and famine, according to the United Nations.