Gunman arrested near Talafar

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: A military force on Monday arrested a gunman of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq group in Talafar district, Ninewa province, an Iraqi army source said. “The gunman was arrested during search raids conducted in the village of Alaw, (3 km) north of Talafar,” the source, who asked not to be named, told IraqiNews.com, adding he was placed under investigative custody. The source did not give further information on the detention. The Islamic State of Iraq, announced in October 2006, is composed of seven armed organizations, most prominent of which is the al-Qaeda Fi Bilad al-Rafidain (literally al-Qaed in the Country of the Two Rivers), or al-Qaeda in Iraq. The group, active in central and western Iraq provinces, is led by a man of the name Abu Omar al-Boghdadi. Talafar lies 60 kilometers west of the city of Mosul. Mosul, the capital city of Ninewa, lies 405 km north of Baghdad. The original city of Mosul stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient biblical city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. Despite having an amount of Kurdish population, it does not form part of the area controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). There are different communities in Mosul like Christians, Shiites and Kurds along with a Sunni majority. The city is also a historic center for the Nestorian Christianity of the Assyrians, containing the tombs of several Old Testament prophets such as Jonah, Yunus in Arabic, and Nahum. AmR (S) 1