Iraq arrests ISIS terrorist accused in infamous Speicher massacre

Iraqi security forces on Wednesday announced they had arrested an Islamic State member who they allege had participated in a grizzly 2014 mass killing known as the Speicher massacre.

After occupying much of northern and western of Iraq, the terrorist organization shocked the nation on June 12, 2014, by killing over 1,500 cadets and other personnel at a military academy known as Camp Speicher located in the province of Salahuddin.

In video footage released online by the group, gunmen were seen executing captives with a single, close-range shot to the head before dumping their bodies into the Tigris River or into shallow graves.

Two years later, the government of Iraq announced they had discovered the bodies of more than 1,000 victims after uncovering mass graves in Tikrit.

At least fifty suspects have been convicted of participating in the mass murder and Iraqi courts have handed them death sentences. Iraqi authorities carried out the execution of 36 in a single day in August 2016.

Two additional suspects were arrested in Finland in late 2015, identified from videos released by the Islamic State.

An Iraqi security team “was able to arrest one of the perpetrators of the terrorist act at the Speicher military camp by Da’esh [ISIS] gunmen,“ a statement from the Iraqi Defense Ministry read. According to the statement, forces had captured the suspect in an ambush in the city of Fallujah near a local traffic directorate.

Source: Kurdistan 24