Sahwa council leader survives assassination attempt

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: A Sahwa council leader in Kirkuk’s Huweija district on Tuesday escaped an attempt on his life, according to a local security source. “On Tuesday, unknown gunmen threw a thermal grenade at his house, causing damage to it,” a source from Kirkuk’s operations room told IraqiNews.com. The source noted that no casualties were reported. 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. SS (P) 1