Iraqi police confirms arrest orders for officers involved in robberies

Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi police official has confirmed earlier reports that arrest warrants had been issued for a special forces officer and his subordinates for perpetrating a series of robberies in Kirkuk province.

Maan al-Saadi, a spokesperson of the Counter-Terrorism Service in Kirkuk, said in a press conference, quoted by Alsumaria News, that the warrants were issued for one officer and seven other lower-ranking personnel after one of them was arrested in links to an armed robbery and confessed that his colleagues ran the theft.

“There is currently an investigation panel from Kirkuk police to find out how the police captain and the other seven managed to flee to an unknown destination and the way the armed robbery took place,” Saadi said.

Earlier this month, sources were quoted by Iraqi press reports saying that the suspected ring masterminded assassinations, carjackings and detonations of booby-traps in Kirkuk.

Kirkuk, a province of mixed Arab and Kurdish ethnicities, has witnessed tensional security conditions over the past months since Iraqi forces took over the province from Kurdish Peshmerga forces in response to Kurdistan’s September vote for independence. Islamic State militants have also claimed responsibility for several killings of security personnel after the Iraqi government declared victory over the group and the end of its territorial influence late last year.

The Iraqi government had repeatedly rebuffed accusations against its troops of committing ethnically-driven human rights breaches throughout the military campaign to retake areas occupied by IS.