AQI leader captured in southwestern Kirkuk

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: A police force on Tuesday detained an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader in a village in southwestern Kirkuk. “A joint force from Kirkuk’s police department and al-Huweija department arrested a leader in the al-Qaeda terrorist organization at 10:30 p.m. on Monday during a raid on a house in Shameet village (65 km southwest of Kirkuk city),” a source from Kirkuk police operations room told IraqiNews.com. The source did not provide 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. SS (P) 1