A TOTAL of 122 senior Iraqi army officers accused of plotting against President Sad dam Hussein were executed between August 1st and 3rd, a Jordanian based Iraqi opposition movement claimed yesterday.
"Most of the bodies of the 122 executed officers have been returned to their families," said a senior official from the Iraqi National Accord (INA) in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
The Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), a Tehran based Shia Muslim opposition group said earlier that 10 Iraqi officers had been executed "in the last few days" for their part in a failed coup attempt in July.
The INA official in Amman said the most senior of the executed officers was Gen Abdel Motlek al Juburi, from the northern town of Mostil who was "considered one of the heroes of the [1980-1988] Iran-Iraq war Gen Juburi was first arrested by the authorities in 1991, but then released under an amnesty in July 1995 before being picked up again last month as part of a sweep within the Iraqi armed forces, the source said.
The INA said 11 other officers from Mosul were among those executed, together with five members of the Dulaimi clan from the western town of Ramadi, three from Al Karna in the south and two from the southern Shia stronghold of Basra.
A first bid to overthrow President Sad dam took place on June 27th at Al-Rashid air base where pilots had planned to bomb the presidential palace, the group said. A second coup attempt took place on July 20th at Habbaniye west of Baghdad, but the plot was uncovered and its leader Maj Fawzi Karim al Hamdani arrested, said the opposition official.
. Iraq and Iran yesterday exchanged the remains of several hundred soldiers killed during their 1980-1988 war, the Iraqi news agency INA said.
Bodies of 400 Iraqis and 65 Iranians were delivered to army officials from the two countries in a funeral ceremony at Iraq's Munthiriya, 200 km north east of Baghdad.
Iraq denies holding any Iranians and says more than 20.000 Iraqis are held by Iran. Tehran denies the Iraqi claim and says Baghdad is still holding 700 Iranian prisoners.