Iraq put to death 12 people terrorism-convicts after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for quick executions in response to the kidnapping and killing of eight members of the security forces, the government said on Friday.
Reuters reported that Abadi had ordered late on Thursday "just retribution" through faster executions of all those on death row for terrorism convictions who had exhausted their appeals.
"By order of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, 12 terrorists sentenced to death (whose appeals were exhausted) were executed on Thursday," a statement released by Abadi's office said.
It did not specify how they were executed but death sentences in terrorism-related cases are usually carried out by hanging, according to AFP.
A judicial source said in April that over than 300 people have condemned to death in Iraq and hundreds of others to life imprisonment for ISIS membership.
Security forces on Wednesday found the bodies of eight men mutilated and rigged with explosives, two days after a deadline set by their ISIS kidnappers was over.
The militants had kidnapped members of Iraq's security forces and showed six of them in a video posted online on Saturday, threatening to kill them within three days if the government did not respond to their demands.
Abadi vowed to avenge the deaths of the eight captives.
"Our security and military forces will take forceful revenge against these terrorist cells," he told senior military officials and ministers.
"We promise that we will kill or arrest those who committed this crime," he added.
Iraq declared victory over ISIS in December, AFP reported, but the Iraqi military has kept up operations targeting mostly remote desert areas where extremists have continued to carry out attacks.
