Iraqi PM calls for investigating the killing of Arab list leader in Kirkuk

KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region (K24) – The head of the Arab List in Kirkuk Province Mohammed Khalil al-Jibburi and his wife were killed on Tuesday, shot by some unknown militants. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Abadi has called for an investigation of the incident.

On Tuesday night, some unknown militants shot al-Jibburi and his wife in a car in al-Tis’in neighborhood in Kirkuk; consequently, al-Jibburi was killed, and his wife was wounded, but the wife died hours after being delivered to a hospital in the province.

“The militants are seen in the security cameras of the area,” said Rebwar Talabani Vice President of Kirkuk’s Provincial Council to K24.

Following the incident, Khalid al-Mufraji, a member of the Iraqi federal parliament asked Abadi to visit Kirkuk to the affair of Arab people in the province.

On Wednesday, Iraqi PM’s press office released a statement stating that Abadi has asked for a detailed investigation regarding the killing of al-Jibburi and his wife.

Kirkuk Governor Najmadin Karim released a statement, saying that “terrorists want to put tensions among the components of Kirkuk by this action, but we completely believe in the people of Kirkuk that they will behave responsibly to protect the solidarity and harmony in Kirkuk until this instability passes the province.”

Iraqi federal forces were taking charge of the province until June 2014, but after the emergence of Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Iraq on June 2014, the forces abandoned their positions and left the province. Since then Kurdish Peshmerga forces protect the province from any jihadist offensives except some areas in the south of Kirkuk that are currently controlled by IS militants.

Oil-rich Kirkuk is now considered as the fifth province of the Kurdistan Region after Erbil, Suleimaniyah, Duhok and Halabja in northern Iraq.