20 family members were killed in botched Iraqi ‘terrorism’ raid after false ‘tip-off’ from relative involved in family dispute with one of the victims
- Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said the operation was informed by fake intel
- The informant had a family quarrel which led him to providing false information
- The informant, nine officers and three agents are now being investigated
An Iraqi security operation that killed 20 people from the same family last week was due to ‘false intelligence’ and a family dispute, the country’s judiciary has said.
The intelligence behind the operation was provided by an informant who had a family quarrel with the deceased, according to the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council statement reported by state media.
The informant, ‘nine officers and three agents’ are being investigated over the incident that took place on Thursday in Al-Rashayed village in the central Iraqi province of Babylon.
An investigating judge heard the statements of the 13 men, the news agency added.
Iraqi forces killed 20 members of the same family after a dispute resulted in them being given fake intelligence
On Thursday, rapid intervention units and intelligence forces stormed a house in Al-Rashayed to pursue ‘two individuals accused of terrorism’.
The state news agency said later that 20 members of the same family were killed and that the owner of the property ‘opened fire’ and ‘refused to surrender’.
‘The questioning revealed that the cause of the tragedy was false intelligence provided by the nephew and son-in-law of one of the victims, because of family disputes,’ the judicial council’s statement said.
The informant gave ‘false information to the security services indicating the presence of two wanted terrorists in the victims’ house’, it said.
Investigations are ongoing and four arrest warrants have been issued, the statement said.
On Friday, Interior Minister Othman al-Ghanemi travelled to Al-Rashayed where he sacked the Babylon police chief and announced the formation of a commission to investigate ‘the unit that carried out the operation’.
Security forces said on Friday that a ‘number of officers and individuals’ had been called in for questioning, without providing details on their identities.
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