BAGHDAD- Iraq has hanged 26 people convicted of 'terrorism' offenses, the Justice Ministry said on Tuesday, pursuing what a UN official criticized as a 'conveyor-belt of executions'. All those executed on Sunday were Iraqi nationals. Among them was Adel al-Mashhadani, a 'Sahwa' militia leader in Baghdad who was 'famous for sectarian crimes', Justice Minister Hassan al-Shimari said in a statement on the ministry's website. Sahwa (Awakening) militias are formed mostly of Sunni Muslim tribesmen who helped U.S. troops roll back an al Qaeda-led insurgency in Iraq from 2006 onwards. Violence in Iraq has surged in the past year to its highest levels since the Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian bloodshed that peaked in 2006 and 2007 when tens of thousands of people were killed.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)