23 suspects arrested in Kirkuk

Kirkuk-Suspects KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: Police forces on Monday arrested 23 suspected gunmen during a crackdown operation in Kirkuk, a source from the police operations room said. “Policemen waged a security raid in the small hours of the morning in al-Askari neighborhood after receiving a tip-off from local residents,” he added. “The forces arrested 23 suspected gunmen,” he said, noting that the operation ended at 8:00 a.m. without incident. He did not give further details. 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 (S)/SR 1