Iraqi forces deny selling Islamic State leaders’ corpses in return for money
Iraqi people walk near bodies of Islamic State militants killed in clashes in Mosul, Iraq, February 6, 2017. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad
In a press conference on Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Najm al-Jabouri, the commander, said the news circulated by some media channels,” which he described as ‘yellow journalism’ over selling corpses of Islamic State leaders in return for huge amounts of money are untrue.
Jabouri urged the ‘yellow media’ in Mosul to stop circulating the untrue news and stick to accuracy.
Last week, news reports quoted sources as saying that some teams and volunteers working on extracting dead bodies from the Old City in Mosul have been confirmed to have sold Islamic State militants’ corpses to their relatives for between USD2000 and USD5000.
Cap. Amir Wathiq, of Nineveh police, told BasNews, on Wednesday, that 167 bodies of Islamic State members, including foreign and Arab leaders, who were killed by their leaders during the liberation battles of Mosul, were found in the city.
Thousands of Islamic State militants as well as Iraqi civilians were killed since the government campaign, backed by paramilitary troops and the coalition was launched in October 2016 to fight the militant group, which declared a self-styled “caliphate” from Mosul in June 2014.
In December, the Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced gaining control on all the territories that were captured by Islamic State, since 2014. However, the group still has dormant cells, through which it carries out attacks, across Iraq like it used to do before 2014.