Iraq hangs three over ISIS-claimed blast that killed hundreds

The 2016 bombing in Baghdad's Karrada district set off fires that killed most of the victims

The car bombing in July 2016 caused damage to buildings in Baghdad's Karrada shopping area. Reuters

Iraq has hanged three people convicted for a 2016 bombing that killed more than 300 people in a Baghdad shopping district.

A car bomb that caused fires in the Karrada district on July 3, 2016, killed 323. The area was full of people shopping in preparation for the Eid Al Fitr festival.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani said in a meeting with victims' families that “the rightful punishment of a death sentence was carried out against three key criminals found guilty of their involvement in the terrorist bombing”.

In October 2021, Iraq announced that the man behind the Karrada blast had been apprehended outside the country. Mustafa Al Kadhimi, prime minister at the time, said Ghazwan Alzawbaee was “the primary culprit” in the attack.

Alzawbaee was among those put to death, a government source told AFP.

Mr Al Sudani's office did not name those executed or say when they were sentenced. The executions were carried out on Sunday night and Monday morning.

The Karrada bombing is one of the deadliest attacks to be carried out in Iraq.

Police Maj Gen Talib Khalil Rahi said the bomber's minibus was loaded with plastic explosives and ammonium nitrate.

The explosion caused fires that trapped people inside the shopping centre.

Many of the victims were too badly burnt to be identified.

The interior minister at the time, Mohammed Ghabban, resigned after the blast.

Death sentences

ISIS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but by the time of the Karrada blast, Iraqi forces had regained significant territory from the terrorist group.

Iraq's government declared victory against ISIS in late 2017 after a military campaign backed by a US-led coalition.

In a March report, the UN estimated that ISIS still has “5,000 to 7,000 members and supporters” across Iraq and Syria, “roughly half of whom are fighters”.

ISIS has been much depleted by “sustained counter-terrorism operations” in both countries, the UN report said.

Over several years, Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to ISIS members under the penal code for membership in “a terrorist group”.

Iraqi courts also issue the death penalty for intentional homicide.

Iraq executed at least 11 people last year, fewer than the US, and sentenced more than 41 to death, a report by Amnesty International showed.