KERKUK CURFEW

Puppet police round up 153 "suspects" in day of mass raids, searches, arrests in KERKUK.

In a dispatch posted at 6:37pm Baghdad time Saturday night, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the puppet police had arrested 153 "suspects" in mass raids, searches, and arrests that took place while the city of Kirkuk endured a total lockdown for 12 hours Saturday.

Yaqen reported Major General Jamal Tahir of the puppet police told a press conference after the lifting of the lockdown imposed on the city for 12 hours until about 5pm local time Saturday afternoon that during the curfew regime forces had rounded up 153 "suspects" and had seized 26 "suspicious cars."

Province of at-Ta’mim locked down by puppet regime authorities as Kurdish separatist drive to annex Kirkuk accelerates.
In a dispatch posted at 2:19pm Baghdad time Saturday afternoon, the Yaqen News Agency reported that the puppet police imposed a total curfew banning pedestrian and vehicle traffic throughout the entire province of at-Ta’mim beginning Saturday morning and until further notice. The curfew in the end lasted about 12 hours.

Yaqen reported Lieutenant Colonel Khalil al-'Ubaydid of the Kirkuk puppet police as saying that the regime had changed its plans and was now imposing a total lock down on the whole province.

The lockdown is believed related to accelerating efforts by the Kurdish separatist political forces to implement Article 140 of the American-imposed "Constitution" – an article that allows the Kurdish separatists to annex the oil-rich, predominantly Arab and Turkoman city of Kirkuk to the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq.

The lockdown imposed on the province is designed to block demonstrations by the majority of the population, which is opposed to the Kurdish land grab.

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