An Iraqi court sentenced 14 people to death for their involvement in the 2014 Camp Speicher massacre, where 1700 Air Force cadets were brutally murdered at the hands of ISIS almost nine years ago.

The 14 people sentenced will be executed by hanging, according to the statement released by the judicial authority on 26 January.

The Al-Rusafa Criminal Court in the capital Baghdad officially stated that “terrorist criminals took part in carrying out the Camp Speicher massacre in 2014, after killing more than 1,700 students from a military base in Salah al-Din province,” without specifying their nationalities.

The sentence can be appealed by the 14 men within 30 days. The president would also have to sign decrees that permit the executions.

The Speicher Massacre occurred during the group’s initial offensive in Iraq, when its fighters took control of Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, and transformed it into a stronghold, holding onto it until they were pushed out by the Iraqi army and a global coalition in 2017.

Several thousand people who have been found guilty or are accused of having connections to ISIS are currently held in Iraqi prisons.

On 10 January, security officials in the Iraqi-Kurdistan Region (IKR) announced the dismantling of two networks with ties to ISIS that plotted bomb attacks across Iraq.

In a statement, the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) claimed that the government prevented several attempts by ISIS to carry out explosions and terror attacks in Erbil before the start of the year 2023.

Hamza Iyad Ahmed and Muhajir Ahmed Al-Azzawi were detained by the KRSC on suspicion of having connections to one of the networks.

According to the report, the two also intended to “detonate a car bomb by remote control in front of a security center building in the Ain Kawa region.”

On 19 December, ISIS also claimed responsibility for a terror attack that killed nine police officers in Iraq.

The militant group disclosed on a Telegram channel that they were responsible for detonating an explosive and proceeded to fire against the security forces with automatic rifles and hand grenades.

The explosion was set off next to a police convoy in Iraq’s Kirkuk province in the Riyadh district.