PHOTOS: Kurdish security foils car bomb in southern Kirkuk, arrest driver

KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Kirkuk security on Friday night confiscated a car bomb in the south of Kirkuk Province and arrested the driver.

In a statement, Kirkuk security announced they had foiled a car bomb attempt and arrested driver Ali Mohammed Khalaf.

It also mentioned the car was an Opel Vectra and the driver had an ID card revealing he was a member of the Defense Mobilization Forces of the second brigade in Baghdad which is believed to be a militia group.

In a statement posted on their Facebook page, the militia group stated that Khalaf had no links to their forces, adding his ID card was fake.

The group also posted his Iraqi national ID card that shows his middle name was Mahmoud, not Mohammed, contradicting the identification security forces had confiscated.

Despite a Kurdish majority population, Kirkuk is one of the most diverse provinces in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq home to different ethnic and religious groups including Arab, Turkmen, and Christians.

Currently, the province is home to over half a million displaced persons who fled from other parts of Iraq due to the threat of the Islamic State (IS).

The neighboring city of Hawija, located in the west of Kirkuk, remains one of the strongholds of IS under the occupation of the insurgent group since June 2014.

Kirkuk officials have repeatedly called on the Iraqi Federal Government to accelerate plans of liberating the city, stating the presence of IS in Hawija poses a serious security threat on Kirkuk.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany