17 wanted men arrested, weapons seized in Basra

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: Joint forces on Tuesday arrested 17 wanted men and seized weapons during crackdown operations in separate areas of Basra, the media office of the Basra police said. “A joint force of 14th division of the Iraqi army and the Basra police waged security raids in the regions of old Basra in central Basra, al-Qibla in western Basra and al-Zubeir in west of Basra, where it arrested 17 wanted men,” the office told IraqiNews.com. “The force seized 26 rifles,” he noted. Basra, 590 km (340 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has an estimated metropolitan population of 2,300,000 in 2008. Basra, a Shiite province with 20% of the population are Sunnis, is the cradle of the first civilization of Sumer. It has the seven main Iraqi ports. The first built in Islam 14 A.H. (After Hegira), the city played an important role in early Islamic history. The area surrounding Basra has substantial petroleum resources and many oil wells. The city’s oil refinery has a production capacity of about 140,000 barrels per day (bpd). SH (P)/SR 1