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Baghdad, June 12, 2024 – Ten years ago, ISIS fighters executed an estimated 1,700 Iraqi air force recruits at Camp Speicher near Tikrit, 140 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. Since 2016, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has provided crucial operational support to Iraqi experts in addressing ISIS crimes, safeguarding and excavating gravesites in Sinjar and mass graves in Tikrit, including Camp Speicher. This support has included training, guidance, and onsite operational assistance at Camp Speicher.
ICMP supported three phases of fieldwork in 2016 and 2017, during which the remains of more than 1,000 victims were recovered from multiple mass graves. Training for forensic anthropologists at the Medico-Legal Directorate of the Ministry of Health (MLD) and support to DNA analysis of human remains have yielded more than 1,000 identifications so far.
“Together with the Medico-Legal Directorate of the Ministry of Health, and with the support of other international organizations such as UNITAD, the government has been able to close many cases of those missing as a result of the massacre. We will continue to help Iraq to account for the missing from this atrocity and bring those responsible to justice,” Alexander Hug, Head of ICMP’s Iraq Program, said today
Ten years after the Camp Speicher Massacre, ICMP remains committed to honoring the victims and supporting efforts to bring closure to their families.
