6 persons arrested near Kirkuk

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: Six people, including two wanted men, were arrested southwest of Kirkuk city on Sunday in accordance with Article 4 of the law on terrorism, according to a senior security official. “A combined campaign of the Kirkuk Districts’ Police Department (KDPD), the Iraqi army and the U.S. forces resulted in the capture of six persons, including two wanted on charges of involvement in terrorist acts,” KDPD Chief Brig. Sarhad Qader told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The campaign covered area 65 km southwest of Kirkuk, including villages belonging to al-Huweija district,” Qader said, not naming the villages. He said that the campaign was carried out in light of the deal reached by the KDPD, the Iraqi army’s 12th Division forces with supervision of the U.S. forces in Kirkuk. “This campaign has started on February 10 and would run until February 20 in a bid to set the stage for the people of Kirkuk to cast their votes in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Iraq, scheduled on March 7,” Qader noted. The oil-rich Kirkuk, a city of mixed Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish population, lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (P)/SR 1