Suspect in Speicher massacre arrested in Syria

BAGHDAD, July 21 — Iraq’s Joint Operations Command announced on July 21 that security forces had arrested a suspect in northern Syria involved in the Camp Speicher massacre of Iraqi military cadets, ending a nine-year pursuit of the attack’s perpetrators.

The Command issued a statement that read:

“In allegiance to the blood of the martyrs of the Speicher massacre, to its patient and noble families, and through continuous efforts that lasted for months, an advanced operation was executed by the brave knights of the Joint Operations Command in direct coordination with the Iraqi National Intelligence Service.

With the precision of information provided, and as part of the great efforts to track down terrorist groups and criminals, today, Friday, the terrorist Azza Ibrahim Mohammed Rabie Al-Saadi, who was on the run for the Speicher terrorist crime, was apprehended.

He had been pursued by our specialized agencies for nine years in the northeastern regions of Syria.”

“Despite the difficulties our knights faced in tracing the whereabouts of the suspect, who had assumed a ‘forged’ identity and attempted to escape to one of the neighboring countries after realizing the severity of the pursuit while in Syria, he failed to recognize that there are determined men who have vowed to eliminate the terrorists and get rid of the corrupt persons like this criminal.”

“Your sons and daughters in the armed forces and other security agencies pledge to their people and the families of the martyrs of this historic crime to spare no effort in seeking fair retribution from these cowardly terrorists to establish security and peace in our beloved country.”