2 wanted men arrested in Kirkuk

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: Two wanted men were arrested on Thursday by police forces in southwestern Kirkuk, the chief of local police said. “The forces launched a crackdown operation in al-Ayoun village in al-Howaiyja district in southwestern Kirkuk, where they arrested two wanted men,” Brigadier Sarhad Qader told IraqiNews.com. Kirkuk, 250 km (156 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, sits on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires, Assyria, Babylonia and Media which controlled the city at various times. Kirkuk is the centre of the northern Iraqi petroleum industry. It is a historically and ethnically mixed city populated by Assyrians, Kurds, Arabs and Iraqi Turkmen. The population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2008. SH (P) 1