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Uniformed Gunmen are Hanged in Baghdad - Government Release Footage

In the city of Baghdad in Iraq, the Iraqi authorities executed 13 men by hanging on Tuesday when they were convicted for murder and kidnapping. They were lined up wearing hoods and green jumpsuits for their execution with their hands tied behind their backs. Unusually the Iraqi government chose to record and distribute some graphic television footage of the convicted men showing the moments before they were hanged. The video footage was given out to both Iraqi and foreign media.

The pictures showed two men standing side by side where they were due to be hanged with nooses around their necks. One man had his arm around another as the hooded men stood alongside each other shortly before they were hanged. Some appeared remorseful, stooping. The footage also revealed a bearded man who unlike the others did not wear a hood, who was listening to an official informing him that his appeal had been rejected and the sentence was still death.

Iraqi TV's choice to air these pictures is unusual and even under Saddam Hussein’s rule this was not done. Many crimes have been committed in Iraq recently and this is why the government has chosen to publicize these tapes. On December 11, gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms stole $1 million from a bank truck and recently in the Iraqi capital, gunmen in military uniforms decided to rob government accountants who were leaving a bank with bags of cash. This was the second significant robbery in Baghdad in eight days. Executions have become more common recently in Iraq, the U.S militaries say that they keep records of the number of Iraqis who were executed since the end of Saddam's rule but cannot give out the exact figures. There have become more and more cases where military uniforms have been used to rob and kill people.