Illustrative Photo: istock
SULAIMANI, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Several armed on Tuesday robbed a government vehicle in Sulaimani city in Iraqi Kurdistan which was reportedly transporting close to 1.5 million USD in civil servant salaries to a local hospital.
On a busy street, gunmen stopped a van transporting the salaries to a Bank.
Quoting a police source, Kurdish news outlet Xendan reported the amount of cash being carried in the vehicle at the time was close to 1.8 billion Iraqi dinars, which is the equivalent of $1.51 million USD. The report also claimed there were four robbers.
Meanwhile the NRT TV said that the vehicle carrying more than 1 billion Iraqi dinars ($840,000) in cash, police officials said on Tuesday.
“A Sulaimani Health vehicle transporting salaries of employees from Rashid Bank was stopped by a vehicle on Tuesday on a road between Orzdi and Ibrahim Pasha Streets and the money was stolen,” a police source told Xendan.
The cash was to be used to pay the salaries of employees at Shar Hospital.
The security forces have arrived on the scene and launched an investigation into the incident.
A witness told NRT TV that the armed men drove a Nissan Patrol vehicle with black windows and seemed to have been trained.
“The armed men used their weapons to threaten the driver of the vehicle carrying the money and stole [the vehicle],” the witness said.
The armed men had opened fire at the hospital van and forced the driver to stop, according to the reports.
At the time of the incident, there were three people in the van including the driver, who were all forced to exit the vehicle at gunpoint by the robbers.
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