Turkey arrests 3 Iraqi IS elements; one involved in Camp Speicher massacre
Islamic State militants. File photo.
One of the three Iraqis turned out to be involved in the Camp Speicher massacre in 2014, a Turkish security source told Anadolu Agency.
Security forces found many documents and electronic devices in possession of the suspects.
After capturing the city of Tikrit in June 2014, the IS executed more than 1700 Iraqi soldiers in Camp Speicher base, northwest of Tikrit, then threw dozens of the bodies in the Tigris River and buried hundreds in mass graves.
Last January, Iraqi authorities discovered a mass grave containing bodies of 89 victims of Camp Speicher massacre.
In the same month, Iraqi judicial authorities executed 31 convicts linked to the massacre.
IS had suffered losses in Iraq and Syria, as the Iraqi government declared victory over Islamic State militants in western Mosul last month, saying it concluded more than eight months of battles to recapture the city which the militants held as the capital of their self-styled “caliphate” since 2014. The eastern side of the city was retaken late January.
The group still holds a few areas in each of Anbar, Salahuddin, Diyala and Kirkuk.