Iraq to hang 27 over IS Camp Speicher killings

An Iraqi criminal court has sentenced 27 men to death for their involvement in the 2014 Camp Speicher massacre.

The men were found guilty of involvement in the Islamic State group's infamous massacre in western Iraq, named after the army camp near Tikrit where the recruits were killed.

Up to 1,700 troops were believed to have been kidnapped and murdered by the militants, following IS' lightening sweep through northern Iraq in the summer of 2014.

IS filmed the massacre in an early piece of shock propaganda. 

The Central Criminal Court of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council on Tuesday handed down the death penalty to 27 suspects who aided militants to carry out the massacre.

The horrendous mass killing incident sparked outrage across the country and partially fueled the creation of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic, with the aim of eliminating IS militants across Iraq.

In August last year, 2016, 36 men were hanged after being convicted of involvement in the massacre. On January 23 this year, 31 other convicts, linked to the massacre, were also executed.

The trials that have led to Iraq's batches of death sentences have been severely criticised by rights groups as failing to meet basic standards.

Amnesty International has previously slammed Iraq's systematic resort to the death penalty.

The convicted men have the right to appeal against the sentences.