14 wanted men, 4 suspects nabbed in Basra

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: A total of 14 wanted men and four suspected gunmen were arrested during crackdown operations in the wee small hours of the morning in separate areas of Basra, the media office of the Basra police said. “Police forces launched security raids in separate areas of Basra at dawn, where they arrested 14 wanted men and four suspected gunmen,” the office told IraqiNews.com. It did not give further details. Basra, 590 km (340 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has an estimated metropolitan population of 2,300,000 in 2008. Basra, a Shiite province with 20% of the population are Sunnis, is the cradle of the first civilization of Sumer. It has the seven main Iraqi ports. The first built in Islam 14 A.H. (After Hegira), the city played an important role in early Islamic history. The area surrounding Basra has substantial petroleum resources and many oil wells. The city’s oil refinery has a production capacity of about 140,000 barrels per day (bpd). SH (P) 1