Iraq executes 5 convicts over terrorism

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi Ministry of Justice on Wednesday announced that it had executed five convicted prisoners for terrorist charges, among them two foreigners.

"The Ministry of Justice carried out death sentences against five convicts including a Syrian and a Saudi for terrorist crimes on Wednesday," the ministry said in a statement.

The statement said that the death sentences were carried out after the Iraqi Presidency Council approved the penalty verdicts for all those five convicts.

In the previous day, Iraq executed 21 prisoners over charges of terrorist crimes, including three women.

Death penalty in Iraq was once suspended for over a year in 2003. But the Iraqi government reinstated capital punishment on Aug 8, 2004.