Al-Ubaid is one of the Arab Tribes in Iraq settled around Kirkuk. The tribe migrated from the Baghdad area to the area of Hawija and Khabour early in the 19th Century.[1] The tribe has been contracted by the Iraqi state-owned North Oil Company to protect the oil pipelines from the Kirkuk fields to the Turkish oil terminal of Ceyhan.[2]
The al Ubaid Tribe are descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammed through his grandson Hussein, they have ruled as Emirs of Mominin in the Fatimid times, soon after its collapse they converted from the Shi'ite sect of Islam to the Sunni Sect of the religion.