Kidnapped person freed, kidnappers arrested in Kirkuk

Kirkuk-Kidnap KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: Police forces freed a kidnapped person and arrested her kidnappers in central Kirkuk, a source from the joint operations room said on Monday. “A police patrol suspected a car near a mosque in Baghdad road region in central Kirkuk, and when they searched it they discovered a kidnapped person with the two men,” the source told IraqiNews.com. “The force arrested the kidnappers and freed the woman,” he added. “She is a Turcoman girl from al-Quoriya region in Kirkuk,” he also said. “The kidnappers are now under investigation,” he added. 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 (S)/SR 1