Baghdad — The Daesh (the so-called IS) terrorist group on Saturday released new footage of its June 2014 massacre of hundreds of mostly military recruits in Tikrit.



The highest estimates put at 1,700 the number of cadets the Daesh gunmen captured at the Speicher military base near Tikrit and executed at various locations, mostly in the city’s former presidential palace complex.



The 22-minute video posted on terrorist forums, which included both new and previously released footage, shows hundreds of executions, providing further evidence of the scope of the atrocity.



Some of the victims are shown pleading for their lives, attempting to explain they had only just joined the security forces.



The grisly footage shows executions on an industrial scale, with victims falling out of dump trucks and later lying side by side in shallow mass graves before being shot dead one by one.



The killing went on into the night and the video shows an excavator being used to move piles of bodies.



Around 600 bodies have been exhumed since government and allied fighters retook Tikrit from Daesh in April but many of the victims were dumped into the Tigris river.



An unidentified Daesh leader in military uniform is seen in the video released on Saturday.



The video was released four days after a court in Baghdad sentenced 24 men to death by hanging over the Speicher massacre.



The trial lasted only a few hours, and the convictions were based mostly on confessions the defendants claimed were obtained under torture. — AFP