DHAKA: Iraq has exhumed the remains of 470 people believed to have been executed by militants near Tikrit last year in what is known as the Speicher massacre.

Iraq’s Health minister Adila Hammoud said this on Thursday, reports the Strait Times.

“We have exhumed the bodies of 470 Speicher martyrs from burial sites in Tikrit,” said at a press conference in Baghdad, referring to the nearby military base that the massacre was named after.

In June 2014, armed men belonging or allied to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group abducted hundreds of young, mostly Shi’ite recruits from Speicher base, just outside the city of Tikrit.

They were then lined up in several locations and executed one by one, as shown in pictures and footage that has emerged since.

BDST: 1721 HRS, MAY 28, 2015
BD/