International Shia Day

Human Rights Sentinel

International Shia Day has been observed and celebrated since June 12th, 2015. This day was introduced by Shia Rights Watch as a result of the increase in oppression against Shia Muslims in different country. Shia Rights Watch chose June 12 as the International Day for Shia Rights in commemoration of the massacre that occurred at Camp Speicher in 2014 in which ISIS militants escorted upwards of 3,000 Iraqi soldiers from Camp Speicher, an Iraqi military base previously operated by the U.S.A., to Tikrit, an ISIS controlled town 140 km north-west of Baghdad. Once they arrived in Tikrit the soldiers were divided by religious affiliation; the non-Shia allowed to live, the Shia condemned to death by firing squad. It is estimated that ISIS killed upwards of 1,700 Shia soldiers, making this the most prolific sectarian mass killing against Shias since the time of Saddam Hussein’s rule. Only one person survived the attacks, Ali Hussein Kadhim, who survived by feigning dead.