Iraqi forces have arrested 11 alleged Al-Qaeda members said to be responsible for attacks in the southern province of Basra that killed dozens of people, a top police officer said on Tuesday. “Eleven criminals from Al-Qaeda have been arrested, including a Pakistani man who was born in Kuwait, who are responsible for recent explosions in Basra,” Major General Faisal al-Ebadi, police chief of Basra, told a news conference.
A video played during the news conference showed alleged confessions of the detainees, in which they said they were responsible for attacks, including one on January 14 against Shiite pilgrims that left 53 people dead. Ebadi said that the arrests were carried out in coordination with intelligence agents and others security forces. One of the detainees is a policeman named Issam Abdelal Yassin who gave “information about the locations of police officers to facilitate assassinating them,” Ebadi said.
