BAGHDAD — Iraq has exhumed the remains of 470 people believed to have been executed by jihadists near Tikrit last year in what is known as the Speicher massacre, the health minister said Thursday. “We have exhumed the bodies of 470 Speicher martyrs from burial sites in Tikrit,” Adila Hammoud said at a press conference in Baghdad, referring to the nearby military base that the massacre was named after. In June 2014, armed men belonging or allied to Daesh (so-called IS) group abducted hundreds of young, mostly Shiite recruits from Speicher base, just outside the city of Tikrit. They were then lined up in several locations and executed one by one, as shown in pictures and footage that has emerged since. Some were pushed into the Tigris river, others hastily buried in locations that were discovered when government and allied forces retook Tikrit from the jihadists about two months ago. — AFP