In the latest development, local authorities also said that a senior leader of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq organization was arrested early Tuesday.
Saadi Hussein Ibrahim, the self-appointed 'Minister of Oil' of the organization was captured in Tikrit, 170 kilometres north of Baghdad, during a dawn raid on a neighbourhood in the city. Weaponry was confiscated from the scene of arrest.
The so-called Minister of Oil was responsible for oil-smuggling operations undergone by the group, notorious for being affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq. The oil is smuggled from oil fields in Bayji, 30 kilometres north of Tikrit, and the money is usually used to finance the extremist group, a senior source from the Salahaddin police department told dpa. |