Al-sulaimaniya: Seven gunmen died and 30 others received injuries in armed clashes in Al-Sulaimaniya Governorate, medical sources reported on Friday. The sources said that the violence ended with the detention of the chief of the People's Front Party, Sheikh Lahor Jangi Talabani, and a number of associates, explaining that the clashes engaged his followers with personnel of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
According to Kuwait News Agency, a source at Al-Sulaimaniya Hospital confirmed that more than 30 injury cases had been admitted at the hospital. Talabani was wanted on charges of conspiracy and threatening the security and stability of the Kurdistan region. He was the second opposition leader to be arrested in less than two weeks, following the detainment of the leader of the "new generation" group, Shaswar Abdulwahid, on August 12.
The independent human rights authority, a local entity, released a statement condemning the "blood incidents" and protesting that excessive force was used for "detaining a number of fugitives in Al-Sulaimaniya." The statement detailed how large security forces, armed with light and heavy arms, sealed off a district in Al-Sulaimaniya last night and engaged in fierce clashes to capture three wanted men. It noted that the gunfight resulted in killing and wounding a number of people, causing terror among residents.
The authority argued that the fugitives should have been tracked down by police, not anti-terrorism squads or any other armed force, protesting the deployment of heavy armor in the operation. The association also criticized the filming of detainees handcuffed and the public dissemination of their images via the media. "The accused is innocent until proven guilty," it stressed in the statement.