Salah Al-Din declares June 12 public holiday to mark Speicher massacre anniversary

SALAH AL-DIN — Gov. Badr Al-Fahal has declared Thursday, June 12, a public holiday in Salah Al-Din governorate to mark the 11th anniversary of the Speicher massacre, the governor’s office said in a statement Tuesday.

The observance commemorates the 2014 mass killing of approximately 1,700 unarmed Iraqi Air Force cadets by Islamic State militants at Camp Speicher near Tikrit. The victims, most of them Shia, were executed after being separated from other prisoners — one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Iraq’s history.

The governor’s office said the holiday is intended to “honor the souls of the righteous martyrs” and affirm national unity and opposition to terrorism.

Service departments are exempt from the holiday, the statement said, and will “organize their work according to actual need” to ensure the continuation of essential public services.

Al-Fahal also directed government departments in Tikrit to mobilize cleanup and support efforts ahead of expected visits to the massacre site.

The Speicher killings occurred during the Islamic State’s rapid advance through Iraq in 2014, as the group captured large parts of the country and neighboring Syria. ISIS was driven out of Iraqi territory in 2017 by Iraqi and Kurdish forces with support from a U.S.-led coalition, and lost its final Syrian stronghold in 2019 to U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters.