Pardoning insurgents

last updated 8 January 2015

Baghdad

The Iraqi government said this week that it would give amnesty to many of the rebels who have been fighting the U.S.-led forces. President Ghazi al-Yawer said the pardon would apply to Iraqi nationals who had taken up arms against the occupation, even if some of them might have killed Americans. Rebels who do not lay down their arms and accept the offer, al-Yawer said, could face the death penalty if captured by authorities. The amnesty does not apply to rapists or hostage takers, or to the foreign jihadists who came to Iraq solely to fight Americans. “We are trying to say this: ‘Enough! Enough! Stop it,’” al-Yawer declared. “To those who claim that they are fighting against occupation, the occupation has ended!”