The Iraqi Ministry of Justice announced Tuesday that 21 prisoners were executed over charges of terrorist crimes, including three women.

"The Ministry of Justice carried out (death) sentences against 21 convicts, including three women, for terrorist crimes on Tuesday," the ministry said in a statement.

The statement said that the death sentences were carried out after the Iraqi Presidency Council approved the penalty verdicts for all those 21 convicts.

Death penalty in Iraq was once suspended for over a year after the US-led invasion of the country. Paul Bremer, then US administrator for Iraq, suspended its use on June 10, 2003. But the Iraqi government reinstated capital punishment on August 8, 2004.