Erbil, 29 Nov. (AKI) - Police in Khaniqin in Iraq's Kurdistan region have arrested 11 Arab men allegedly responsible for the 18 November attacks against two Shiite mosques in the city that killed 75 people, sources from one of the main Kurdish parties said on Tuesday. The breakthrough in investigations came when police picked up one of the suspects who then led them to the other members of his "terrorist cell," they said.
"The police picked up the man, an Arab from Jalula (a mainly Sunni city northeast of Baghdad) who is a member of Tawhid and Jihad, a group linked to the Ansar al-Sunna terror group," said the sources from the Kurdish Patriotic Union, the party of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.
"The man confessed to having participated in the planning of the dynamite attacks against the mosques and of being a member of Tawhid and Jihad operating for the group in Khaniqin," the sources speaking on condition of anonimity said. | I'm sure the Kurdish police read him his rights, between screams |
Based on information provided by the man, police then arrested 10 more suspects - all Arab men from the cities of Khaniqin, Jalula and Shahraban. Tawhid and Jihad and a Kurdish group, Ansar al-Islam, are believed to be allied to Jordanian militant Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi who heads the jihadist movement in Iraq. |