Since 2011, KRG’s joint operation arrested over 2,000 wanted suspects

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Interior on Wednesday announced that they had arrested over 2,000 suspects since the creation of a joint operations command with other security and Peshmerga directorates in 2011.

The joint operations command was established on the order of the then-President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani to arrest wanted criminals hiding in the Kurdistan Region.

Jabar Yawar, the secretary-general of the Peshmerga Ministry, in a joint presser with the General-Director of the Kurdistan Region police, Bakhtiyar Baban, and former General-Director of the Kurdistan Region police, Abdulla Khailani, said they continue to search for criminals on the run in the region.

“Fortunately, since 2011, out of 2,335 wanted suspects, we have arrested over 2,000 of them” through the nine branches of the joint operation command opened in different cities and towns of the Kurdistan Region, Yawar told reporters.

He mentioned that many of the remaining suspects have fled to central and southern provinces of Iraq.

“Their files will be sent to the police forces of those areas to transfer the wanted suspects they arrest,” Yawar added, warning that “those who help hide the suspects would be charged as associates of the criminals.”

Over the past two years, Kurdish authorities have arrested many criminals who fled from Europe to the Kurdistan Region, including Ali Bashar and an Ezidi murderer.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany