A report earlier this week of 70 Sunni prisoners dying “in the crossfire” of an ISIS attack on the police transporting them has unsurprisingly turned out to be untrue, according to Hilla police who were involved in the transportation.
The police confirmed to Reuters that no ISIS attack ever took place on the convoy, and that the police decided to just execute all of them to “prevent them from escaping.”
It was the second mass execution of Sunni detainees in less than a week, after police gunned down 52 prisoners in Baquba on a similar pretext. The Iraqi government continues to deny the killings, though police brag about them openly as a law and order measure.
The killings underscore the growing sectarian divide in Iraq, as even while police execute Sunni “suspects” held without charges en masse, Shi’ite prisoners who were on death row for convicted crimes have been summarily pardoned to join pro-government militias.
