Lebanon has handed over a grandnephew of former dictator Saddam Hussein to Iraq after he was accused of involvement in the Camp Speicher massacre by ISIS militants in 2014, security sources said.
Abdullah Yasser Sabawi, the grandson of Saddam's half-brother Sabawi Ibrahim Al Tikriti, was detained in the Lebanese city of Jbeil in August and was extradited on November 9, a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"He is accused of having been a member of ISIS and having participated in the Speicher massacre", in which as many as 1,700 air force cadets were executed by the terrorist group, said the security official.
Mr Sabawi has reportedly lived in Lebanon for years.
The massacre at Camp Speicher, near Saddam's home town of Tikrit, became a symbol of ISIS brutality as the terrorist group expanded its presence in Iraq.
Mr Sabawi, born in 1994, was detained after an Interpol notice called for his arrest over his alleged involvement in the killing, according to a Lebanese judicial source.
"Iraq requested his extradition," the source said.
Mr Sabawi's family has denied the accusations, telling AFP he was in Yemen at the time of the massacre.
The fall of Tikrit in 2014 was part of the ISIS onslaught that stunned Iraqi security forces and the military, which melted away as the militants advanced and captured key cities and towns in the country’s north and west.
Nearly 3,000 cadets from all over Iraq were ordered by their superiors to change into civilian clothes and leave Camp Speicher after the fall of Mosul in June 2014.
Those carrying weapons were told to leave them behind.
Many of the cadets were captured by the insurgents, who took them to various locations around Tikrit and executed them one by one in the worst single atrocity committed by the group.
Videos showed masked gunmen bringing the victims to a bloodstained concrete river waterfront inside the presidential palace complex in Tikrit, shooting them in the head and dumping them in the Tigris.
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Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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