Should Baathists have role in post-IS Iraq?
Former Baathists, some of whom have collaborated with the Islamic State (IS), are now looking to take on a prominent role in the post-IS recovery.
![MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ-MOSUL Iraqi soldiers pose with the Islamic State flag along a street in the Intisar district of eastern Mosul, Iraq, November 14, 2016, after capturing the same area from this district from the Islamic State on November 3. REUTERS/Air Jalal - RTX2TL72](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2016/11/RTX2TL72.jpg/RTX2TL72.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=PzctI-f2)
Iraqi security forces arrested Saddam Hussein’s cousin Nizar Hammoud Abdul Ghani, who was one of the Iraqi president’s personal guards, on Oct. 25 for his alleged involvement in the Islamic State's attack on Kirkuk on Oct. 21.
“Three of his brothers are also high-ranking officers in the [IS] organization in Al-Hawija district,” the chief of Kirkuk’s suburban police, Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, told Rudaw. Hawija lies some 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Kirkuk.