Baghdad, Jun 29 (IANS): Iraq executed 12 convicted terrorists over terror charges, hours after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for rapid executions, the government said on Friday.

The call was made in response to the recent kidnapping and killing of eight security members by Islamic State (IS) militants, reports Xinhua news agency.

On the directions of al-Abadi, the executions were carried out on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Iraqi forces found the bodies of eight people kidnapped earlier by the IS near the village of Sarha at the provincial border between Diyala and Salahudin in central Iraq.

The bodies belonged to policemen and members of paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.

The increase in executions in Iraq has sparked calls to stop capital punishment by the UN mission in Iraq, European Union and some international human rights groups, which have criticized the lack of transparency in Iraqi courts.

The death penalty in Iraq was suspended on June 10, 2003, but was reinstated from August 8, 2004.