Baghdad, Jan 5 : Iraq executed 77 people convicted of capital offences over the course of 2009, the Iraqi government announced Tuesday.

Judge Mahdat al-Mahmoud, chair of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, said a special court for terrorism-related offences had been created to deliver speedy justice in such cases.

The announcement followed a criminal court decision in the Iraqi town of Rusafa Dec 29 to sentence to death three men for their role in a June bombing that killed 88 people and injured 200 outside a mosque in the northern town of Taza.(DPA)