ERBIL - A criminal court in Iraq sentenced nine people to death on Sunday over their involvement in the massacre committed by the Islamic State (IS) in Camp Speicher.

The death penalties were issued by the Central Criminal Court in the Federal Appeal Presidency of al-Rusafa, according to a statement by the media center of the Supreme Judicial Council.

The convicts had confessed to being involved in the execution of nearly 1,700 Iraqi people in the Camp Speicher in the summer of 2014.

The Islamic State jihadists executed about 1,700 Iraqi soldiers at Camp Speicher in Salahaddin after they overran the city on June 12, 2014.

The Iraqi Ministry of Health has put the official death toll at 1,907, the majority of whom were identified as military students under the age of 20. The militant group later dumped them into the river or buried them in separate mass graves.