Sahwa leader killed, suspects nabbed in Kirkuk

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: The leader of a pro-government sahwa (awakening) tribal fighters was killed when an improvised explosive device went off near his vehicle southeast of Kirkuk on Friday, according to a senior security official. “An IED went off near the al-Rashad sahwa leader Awwad Hammoud Nassif on the Kirkuk-Tikrit highway, (35 km) southwest of Kirkuk, killing him instantly,” Brig. Sarhad Qader, the director of the Kirkuk Districts Police Department (KDPD), told IraqiNews.com news agency. In a separate incident, a source from Kirkuk police said a force from the al-Miqdad Police Department arrested two persons near an amusement park on al-Corniche street with about 345 kilograms of explosive material in their possession in accordance with Article 4 of the law on terrorism. “The apprehension took place upon intelligence tip-offs by a local resident,” the source added. The oil-rich Kirkuk, a city of mixed Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish population, lies 250 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. AmR (P) 1