Peregraf
Lahur Sheikh Jangi, leader of the People’s Front (Baray Gal), is being held in the Asayish prison in Sulaymaniyah and is expected to face investigation by a security judge, a security source told Peregraf on Saturday.
His brother, Polad Sheikh Jangi, who was wounded during the clashes in Lalazar, was discharged from hospital the same day and transferred to the same prison, according to another brother, Aras Sheikh Jangi, who spoke to Rudaw.
Aras said the family was in contact with British and U.S. authorities regarding the brothers’ case, stressing that both Lahur and Polad hold British citizenship. He questioned the legality of their detention in Sulaymaniyah, arguing that “there is no such thing as a court inS ulaymaniyah” and suggesting they should instead be tried in Baghdad or Erbil.
“They were attacked with American and French weapons, and even drones from a neighboring country,” Aras alleged. He added that Lahur had called a security official during the fighting, urging him to surrender “so that people would not be killed.”
The brothers’ arrest followed overnight clashes that erupted Friday at the Lalazar Hotel in Sulaymaniyah’s west, where Lahur had based his operations since splitting from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in 2021. The hotel was surrounded before dawn by units of the Asayish, Counter-Terrorism Group, and Commando forces, who said they were executing arrest warrants issued under Article 56 of Iraq’s Penal Code, which covers conspiracies against state security.
Instead of surrendering, dozens of fighters loyal to Sheikh Jangi — known as the Scorpion Force — resisted for more than three hours. Heavy gunfire and explosions rocked the area, leaving at least four people dead, including three members of the security forces, and many more wounded. Vehicles were torched, while nearby homes and businesses sustained extensive damage.
The Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister Masrour Barzani condemned the fighting, warning that “these confrontations target the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region” and must be resolved “through legal means.” Sulaymaniyah’s governor Haval Abubakir also urged calm, saying that violence “only makes problems more complicated and delays solutions.”
The People’s Front described the raid as a “terrorist act” and called on foreign consulates, the federal government in Baghdad, and the Kurdistan Regional Government to intervene. In its statement, the group declared that “the lives of Lahur Sheikh Jangi and members of the Scorpion Force are the responsibility of Bafel Talabani,” the PUK leader and Lahur’s cousin, with whom he has been locked in a bitter rivalry since 2021.
Sheikh Jangi, once co-president of the PUK, was sidelined after Talabani consolidated control over the party and its security forces. He went on to form the People’s Front, which won two seats in the 2024 Kurdistan parliamentary elections — results he dismissed as fraudulent. Alongside his political efforts, he established the Scorpion Force, which he portrayed as defensive but which authorities regarded as an illegal militia.
The violent showdown at Lalazar marks the most direct confrontation yet between Sheikh Jangi’s camp and PUK-led forces. His detention could spell the unraveling of the People’s Front, whose political presence has largely depended on his leadership and militia.