The immediate terrorist threats within Iraq are the remains of ISIS’s Iraq province and Iran-aligned militia groups (IAMGs), which include U.S.-designated Kata’ib Hezbollah, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, and Harakat al-Nujaba. The U.S.-designated Kurdistan Workers’ Party, placed in the mountains of northern Iraq, functions in the vicinity of Sinjar, Ninewa province, in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR).
Recently, Iraqi authorities have executed eight people sentenced to “terrorism” over ties to the Daesh group. Under Iraqi regulation, terrorism and murder crimes are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president. A security authority in Iraq’s southern Dhi Qar province said that 11 “terrorists from the Daesh group” were executed by hanging at a prison in Nasiriyah
The source said that eight Iraqis “convicted of terrorism and of being associates of the Daesh group were executed by hanging” at Al-Hut prison in the city of Nasiriyah “under the custody of a justice ministry team.” A local medical source verified that the health department had received the bodies of eight executed individuals. Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offences are punishable by extinction, and execution orders must be signed by the president.
The eight Iraqis were hanged “under Article 4 of the anti-terrorism law,” the security source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. All 11 were from Salahaddin region and the bodies of seven had been returned to their households, the medical official expressed. Iraq has numerous security, law enforcement, and intelligence organizations with co-occurring responsibilities, including the CTS, the National Security Services, the Iraqi National Intelligence Service, military intelligence, and assorted Ministry of Interior units, including national and local police. The United States helped Iraqi CT efforts by providing training, tools, and other service to these organizations.
Iraqi counterterrorism operations are principally executed by the Counterterrorism Service (CTS), a Cabinet-level entity briefing directly to the prime minister, as well as by various security muscles under the Ministries of Defense and Interior and the Kurdish Peshmerga. In limited illustrations, Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) augment Iraqi Army- and CTS-led operations. While all PMF are mandated by law to operate as part of the ISF, many PMF groups persisted in defying central government command and control and engaged in fierce and destabilizing activities in Iraq and neighbouring Syria. Attacks by IAMGs against U.S. stakes in Iraq decreased in 2022.
The execution on April 2024 of 11 people sparked anxiety among rights groups, with Amnesty International condemning an “alarming lack of transparency.” Al-Hut is an infamous prison in Nasiriyah whose Arabic name suggests “the whale,” because Iraqis believe that those jailed there never walk out alive.
Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death and life sentences in recent years for people sentenced for membership in a “terrorist group,” an offence that maintains the death penalty regardless of whether the defendant had been an active fighter.