Arrest ordered for Iraqi police commander for terror-related accusations
Federal police forces. File photo
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) An arrest warrant has been issued for a fugitive Iraqi police commander and several other lower-ranking personnel after he was accused of perpetrating several terror incidents in Kirkuk province, security sources were quoted saying.
Baghdad Today quoted the source saying that Cap. Loai Mohamed Reda, commander of Kirkuk’s “SWAT” forces and 20 of his subordinates.
“The personnel escaped to an unknown destination after armed robbers, arrested yesterday, confessed that assassinations, carjackings and detonations of booby-traps had been carried out by his orders,” the source told the website.
The source noted that the latest car blast in the province occurred on Monday.
Kirkuk, a province of mixed Arab and Kurdish ethnicities, has witnessed tensional security conditions over the past months since Iraqi forces took over the province from Kurdish Peshmerga forces in response to Kurdistan’s September vote for independence. Islamic State militants have also claimed responsibility for several killings of security personnel after the Iraqi government declared victory over the group and the end of its territorial influence late last year.
The Iraqi government had repeatedly rebuffed accusations against its troops of committing ethnically-driven human rights breaches throughout the military campaign to retake areas occupied by IS.