Coordinator of deadly blasts in Kirkuk is an AUIS student

[Anthea]

The suspect arrested for coordinating the deadly blasts of the Kirkuk police directorate is a student of the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, who has claimed that he recorded the blasts for no reason and that it was none of his duties while confessing his financial contribution to the violent act.

On Sunday, February 3, after two successive car bombs in front of the Kirkuk police directorate, two gunmen attacked the building and both were subsequently killed during their encounter with the police as the blasts left dozens dead and hundreds more injured.

Two days after the attacks, Najmadin Karim, the governor of Kirkuk revealed the arrest of the coordinator of the deadly blasts after he was yelling “Allahu Akbar” while video recording the blasts.

Source told Hawlati, the suspect’s name is Muhammad Rabi’ Hadi, and that he was born in 1983 in Baghdad and is Sunni Arab and has been residing in Sulaymaniah for the past years.

According to the source, the suspect obtained a bachelors degree in Islamic Fiqh, and who up until the time of his arrest was attending the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani. The suspect is reported to be good in IT and electronics as well as fluent in English.

During his interrogation, he has stated that recording the attacks was none of his duties, saying “I just financially supported the attacks, and I was recording the blasts for fun just to see how the police directorate is controlled by the gunmen.”

He also has revealed that he owns a PVC factory and has supported al-Qaeda since 2005.

The Kirkuk governor stated that the suspect is member of al-Qaeda and has participated in numerous “terrorist” acts, and that he was also imprisoned by the US army in the past in Baghdad.

Muhammad Rabi’ Hadi confessed that he is a friend of Abu Aya, who is one of the prominent leaders of al-Qaeda, and that he has been backing the “terrorist” groups for years.

Muhammad Hadi admitted that he planned the attacks, saying “We met in the building of a private powerhouse ten days before the attacks, and we divided ourselves into three groups: financial, planning and attacks.”

The source further stated that “After the arrest of Muhammad Hadi, his family was also arrested”, and also revealed that after his arrest, two of the planning members of the attacks have killed another four individuals who had participated in the attacks in a private powerhouse, as one them was the owner of the powerhouse.

At that time, Colonel Muhammad Saeed, the chief of the Uruba police told Kirkuk Now “Four young men were killed in the control room of a private powerhouse in the Uruba neighborhood by a group of gunmen using silenced weapons,” but added that the reason for the murders was not yet known at that time.

According to the source, the two murderers escaped to Baghdad but were arrested by the Counter Terror Forces but they have not yet handed the detainees back to Kirkuk police so far.

http://kirkuknow.com/english/index.php/ ... s-student/