Armed group member arrested in Kirkuk

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: A combined force captured on Saturday a man wanted on charges of belonging to the armed group al-Naqshabandiya southwest of Kirkuk, according to the Kirkuk Districts’ Police Department (KDPD) chief. “A force from the KDPD and the Tarklan police station arrested a wanted man in accordance with Article 4 of the law on terrorism on the main road linking Kirkuk to al-Huweija district, (65 km) southwest of Kirkuk,” Brig. Sarhad Qader told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The detained man, born in 1972 and his name is Mohammed Ibrahim Khalaf, is a local resident of Huweija,” he added. Qader noted that Khalaf, according to intelligence tip-offs from the Kurdish security agency asayesh , is a member of the so-called al-Ahbab al-Naqshabandiya Army, adding he was referred to the Kirkuk Criminal Investigations Department for questioning. Al-Naqshabandiya, an armed group self-proclaimed after 2003 and composed of officers and soldiers of the former Iraqi army, is loyal to Izzat Ibrahim al-Dori, the vice president of the former Iraqi regime, and active mainly in Kirkuk and its environs. Dori, who was born in 1942, used to be the vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council during the former regime’s time. He ranks 6th on a U.S. forces’ pack of cards of 55 most wanted persons after their invasion of Baghdad in April 2003, pledging a reward of $10 million for information leading to capturing him. Dori, the King of Clubs on this pack, had been reportedly arrested more than once, perhaps the recent of which was in April 2008. The dissolved Baath Party had announced on November 11, 2005 that Dori has died, only to deny the reports shortly after. Asayesh or asayish (Kurdish for security) is a Kurdish organization, created in September 1993. It is referred to as an “intelligence agency”, “security force”, “security service”, “security police”, “secret service”, “secret police”, or just “Kurdish police”. Related to Iraqi Kurdistan region president Massoud Barazani, it also acts under the command of the Kurdish National Assembly (parliament) and the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). The oil-rich Kirkuk, a city of mixed Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen population, lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (S) 1