Jalawlaa police arrest Talabani’s PUK members

DIALA / IraqiNews.com: The Emergency Police personnel in Jalawlaa arrested on Sunday 10 members of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) on charges of opening fire on a police officer, a security source in Diala said. “The officer came under an armed attack on Saturday (Feb. 28) in central Jalawlaa, (30 km) southwest of Khanaqin district. He was wounded in the attack,” the source told IraqiNews.com news agency. The PUK is one of two main parties in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. The other one, led by Massoud Barazani, the president of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, is the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). “The detainees are under investigative custody,” the source added. Meanwhile, Salah al-Kuweikha, the official in charge of the PUK in Khanaqin, 155 km northeast of Baaquba, denied any PUK members’ involvement in the attack on the police officer. “The arrests were just an attempt on the part of the Emergency Police to mar the fraternal ties binding the Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen,” said Kuweikha. Baaquba, the capital city of Diala province, lies 57 km northeast of Baghdad. AmR (P)/SR 1