Detentions in Erbil village after protest over tribal figure’s arrest

ERBIL — Police detained several people in Girda Rasha village in Khabat district on Sunday night after a gathering demanding the release of tribal figure Khurshid Herki, arrested seven weeks ago, with gunfire heard in the area.

Officers went to the village “to maintain order and prevent damage to residents and public property,” the Erbil Police Directorate said, and those involved in the disturbances were detained on a judge’s order, with legal measures to follow against anyone else who took part. It did not say how many were held.

Herki and his brother Haider Latif were arrested in early July on judicial warrants over the killing of a Peshmerga soldier and a civilian in clashes in the same village on July 8, 2025, when security forces went in to detain Herki over public disorder. Armed supporters resisted and the fighting ran into the next day, killing Falah Hassan, a Zeravani Peshmerga from Kifri, and Masoud Salih of the Herki tribe. Footage circulated at the time showed two military Humvees burning. The confrontation had followed an armed dispute days earlier between the Herki and Goran tribes over farmland in the Bashiriyan, Kalkana and Hanjarok areas, after which a mediation committee was formed.