Three hanged for Iraq bombing that killed more than 300 people

Iraq has hanged three people convicted of involvement in a vehicle bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 300 people and injured hundreds in 2016.

On 3 July 2016 a vehicle filled with explosives was blown up next to a crowded shopping centre in Karrada, a mainly Shia Muslim area of the Iraqi capital.

Many of the victims were killed by a fire that ripped through the building after the bomb blast.Interior Minister Mohammed Ghabban resigned in the wake of the bomb blast.

The then-Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, accused Zawbaee of being the “primary culprit” behind that attack and “many others”.

The terrorist act was the deadliest single bombing in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

The Islamic State group (IS) admitted carrying out the attack. IS has been defeated and lost control of territory, but still remains active in regions of Iraq, Syria, and Africa.

The executions were carried out on Monday, August 28, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s office said. It did not name those executed.

A government source told AFP news agency that Ghazwan al-Zawbaee, the  mastermind behind the attack, was among those put to death. Zawbaee was arrested and returned to Iraq in 2021.

The prime minister informed victims’ families that “the rightful punishment of death sentence” had been carried out against “three key criminals found guilty of their involvement in the terrorist bombing”, his office said.