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| Iraq |
| Iraq asks Kurds to hand over Sunni vice president |
| 2012-01-09 |
| [Pak Daily Times] Iraq has formally asked authorities in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region to hand over Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and 12 of his entourage to face charges of running death squads, an Iraqi official said on Sunday. Iraq's Shia-led government issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni politician in mid-December, shortly after the withdrawal of the last US troops, triggering a political crisis that threatens Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fragile governing coalition of Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions. The move against Hashemi and Maliki's request to parliament to remove Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, followed a few days later by a series of bombings in mostly Shia areas of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... that killed at least 72 people, revived fears of sectarian strife in the OPEC oil producer. "We sent an official request a day ago to the Interior Ministry and (security forces) of the Kurdistan region asking them to hand over al-Hashemi with twelve other suspects to judicial authorities in Storied Baghdad," Lieutenant-General Hussein Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister, told Rooters. |
| Posted by:Fred |