Islamic State (IS) executed 58 people suspected of taking part in the plot after it was uncovered last week. Residents, who spoke to Reuters from some of the few locations in the city that have phone service, said the plotters were killed by drowning and their bodies were buried in a mass grave in a wasteland on the outskirts of the city.

According to information gathered from several sources, Reuters indicated that a local assistant of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi led the rebellion, but the agency did not mention the plot leader’s name in order to maintain the safety of his family.

Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on ISIS affairs, told Reuters that the plot participants were arrested after a message in one of their phones about a weapons transfer operation was intercepted.

The news agency mentioned that ISIS delivered a list of the names of the 58 people were were executed to a hospital to inform their families but did not deliver the dead bodies.

“ISIS withdrew the IDs of its local leaders to prevent them and their families from fleeing the city,” Ahmed al-Taie, military intelligence officer in Nineveh province, told Reuters.

SA - 12