Gang for abduction of citizens detained in Kirkuk

KIRKUK  / IraqiNews.com: A gang behind the abduction of several citizens, belonging to the so-called “Ansar al-Sunna” underground group, has been detained in northern Iraq’s Kirkuk Province on Sunday, according to a Kirkuk Police Director.   “A Kirkuk Police force has arrested 6 members of Ansar al-Sunna group, along with a demanded person in Hawija township, 65 km to the southwest of Kirkuk,” Lt-Brigadier Sarhad Qader told IraqiNews.com news agency, adding that all the detainees have confessed being a gang for kidnapping citizens in Kirkuk.   He said the gang’s last victim had been the Hawija citizen Mahdi Ahmed Mohammed, the owner of a shop for selling agricultural materials on 23/8/2011, demanding his family to pay a ransom of half million US dollars for his release.   “When the victim’s relatives failed to pay the ransom, the gang killed him and threw his body in Kirkuk’s Zab River,” Qader said, adding that the body was picked up from the river south of Kirkuk and handed it to his relatives.   The oil-rich city of Kirkuk is 280 km to the northeast of Baghdad.   SKH (PT) 397