Duhok police arrest alleged killers of Yezidi tribal leader

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Local authorities in the city of Duhok in the Kurdistan Region on Wednesday announced they had arrested two suspects in the recent kidnapping and murder of a Yezidi (Ezidi) tribal leader.

Late last week, Duhok security forces discovered the body of Qasim Mito Ahmed, chief of the Ezidi al-Bashar tribe, trapped inside his burned down car, the city’s police spokesperson explained during a press conference on Wednesday. Ahmed had gone missing on Thursday, he added.

The body was sent to the Duhok Police’s forensic department, after which the “police formed a number of committees, in cooperation with Duhok’s crime prevention division,” and launched an investigation into the matter to “uncover the circumstances of the incident and arrest the perpetrators.”

The investigative team was able to identify two people reportedly involved in the crime. “Police forces captured the two suspects who confessed” to killing the chieftain near a village close to the town of Sharya, about seven kilometers south of Duhok.

“The suspects confessed to killing the victim and setting fire to the body inside his vehicle,” the police explained. Both suspects are Ezidis, born in 2000 and 1998, and allegedly confessed the motive behind the attack was “family issues” involving the tribal leader.

Editing by Nadia Riva