4 suspects detained, bomb defused in Kirkuk

Kirkuk-Suspects KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: Police forces on Monday arrested four suspected gunmen in the southwest of Kirkuk and defused a bomb in al-Howaiyja district, a police source said. “The forces arrested four suspected gunmen on Monday in Wahed Huzayran region in southwest of Kirkuk,” Brig. Khaled Abdul Sattar told IraqiNews.com: “The forces also defused a bomb, planted near the main road in al-Uyoon village in al-Abbassi district, south of al-Howaiyja,” he added. He did not add more 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 center 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)/SR 1