A policeman prays before an anti-terrorism night raid

Iraq’s Kirkuk region, roughly 250 km / 150 miles north of Bagdad, is a major oil production site. Since the American led invasion of 2003, it has had it’s share of suicide attacks and car bombings. Insurgents have been know to target local police forces, seen as collaborators with the US Military.

By 2011 all American combat troops will leave Iraq.  By the end of June 2009, the Coalition Forces will pull back from Iraqi cities.  Little by little the policing of Iraq is being handed back to the Iraqis: the Iraqi Army, the Iraqi Police, and the local police forces.

The front line against insurgency and terrorism in Iraq will no longer be the US, the greatest military power on earth, but instead police forces like the Kirkuk Regional Police, a rag tag bunch of underpaid and out of shape Kurds.  Led by their charismatic Brigadier General, Sarhad Qadar, this group of policemen defy the odds and keep Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups at bay in the volatile region around Kirkuk.

Policemen play with their cell phones while waiting to conduct an anti-terrorism night raid

A member of the American Military congratulates Brigadier General Sarhad Qadar of the Kirkuk Regional Police on recovering two suicide vests.

The Kirkuk Regional Police wear mostly cast off clothes from the American military.

A policeman washes in the shower room

An overweight policeman tries to jump over a wall during an anti-terrorism night raid

The police drive through the outskirts of Kirkuk

The police arrest a terror suspect

A member of the Kirkuk Regional Police gives his friend a massage in their quarters before a night raid.

Police jump from the back of a pick-up truck

Policemen share cell phone photos and videos while they wait for orders

The shoes of choice for the policemen are not very practical for police operations

The police drive towards Tikrit on an dawn raid

The vehicles used by the Kirkuk police are welded together from other car parts

An American helicopter hovers over the Kirkuk police during a dawn raid