Us Arrests 29 In Kirkuk Including 5

US arrests 29 in Kirkuk, including 5 Policemen

US forces arrested 29 Iraqis on Tuesday afternoon, including 5 police officers, after a search operation in a quarter of the northern, largely Kurdish city of Kirkuk. This according to a Kirkuk police official, Major Adnan Muhammad Sadir, head of the police station in Miqdad, in an interview with Agence France Press. The operation in that quarter lasted two hours and a half, ending in the arrests mentioned. This is the first time the US has arrested Kirkuk policemen.

This item, reprinted in az-Zaman, could be a sign of trouble for the future. US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is putting a lot of emphasis on “Iraqization” or turning to Iraqi police and soldiers to provide security to the country as the US withdraws. But what if the police and army come to be full of anti-American Arab nationalists who use their new position to hit out at the US and its Iraqi allies?