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Oil city of Kirkuk shut down as troops
hunt insurgents 7.10.2006
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KIRKUK, Kurdistan
(Iraq) October 7, -- The streets of the
northern Iraqi oil Kurdish city of Kirkuk were
silent but for the rumble of military vehicles and
buzz of helicopters as a curfew and military search
operation kept residents inside.
Iraqi police and troops launched raids across the
city, hunting insurgents and unlicensed weapons in a
bid to end a wave of assassinations and bombings.
"During the operation, which is ongoing, we have
arrested a number of wanted people," said Major
General Jamal Tahir Shakur, the interior ministry's
representative for Mosul and Kirkuk.
"In some areas we have confiscated dozens of
weapons, and in other more volatile neighborhoods,
hundreds," he added Saturday.
Kirkuk security officials said the operation
involved 14,000 police and soldiers from the 2nd
Brigade of the 4th Iraqi Army Division.
"These operations are the first of their kind in
Kirkuk," said Captain Emad Jassim Khidr of the
Kirkuk police.
He added that all vehicles and pedestrian traffic
had been banned and shops closed during the
open-ended curfew.
According to witnesses, the security forces'
approach seemed to vary by what neighborhood they
were searching or what unit was carrying out the
search.
In some places buildings were violently stormed
while in others, police politely asked for
permission to enter.
Following each search, residents were given a piece
of paper to verify that the house had been
inspected.
Roads into the city have been closed and in some
cases sealed with newly dug trenches to cut down on
rebel infiltration.
"We are tightening security on these entrances and
searching the incoming vehicles," said Khidr.
The new lock-down tactic is one increasingly being
used by coalition forces in troubled cities across
Iraq, including Baghdad where trenches and barriers
are being built to control access to the capital.
In some cases, whole towns or neighborhoods have
been surrounded by massive earthen walls with
limited guarded entrances in an effort to halt
bombing campaigns by insurgents opposed to the
US-backed coalition government.
US military involvement in the operation is minimal,
said US officials, and largely restricted to air
support and advisory role.
"This was an activity planned and directed by the
Iraqi government," said US military spokesman
Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson. "As we are
partnered with them in security operations,
coalition forces are assisting the effort."
The operation in Kirkuk came without warning at 6.00
pm (1500 GMT) Friday and angered many residents
fearful at the impact on their businesses of the
open-ended curfew.
"We were not told of the curfew and our shops in the
markets of Kirkuk and Khan al-Tamir import
vegetables from neighboring countries like Iran and
Turkey," said stall-holder Azad Mahmud Taqi, 56,
reached at home by phone.
"A long-running curfew will really hurt us," he
warned.
The curfew is especially onerous for coming during
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which
households often spend the whole day preparing
elaborate meals for sunset, when they break their
daytime fast.
Some store owners also worried about perishables
shut up in closed stores.
"Our shops are full of pastries made early
yesterday," said Jankiz Ochi, who owns a pastry shop
in downtown Kirkuk. "The closure of the shop due to
the curfew is doing us big harm."
Despite its volatile ethnic mix of Kurds, Arabs and
Turkmen, Kirkuk has not seen quite as much violence
as the capital, thanks in part to an argumentative,
yet active, provincial council.
In recent months, however, an insurgent campaign
erupted in an apparent bid by extremists to provoke
violence between rival Arab and Kurdish factions
vying for control of a city which sits on a
significant portion of Iraq's oil wealth.
A string of car bombs has rocked Kirkuk, targeting
its various communities and threatening to plunge
the city into chaos.
The Sunni Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sunna, an
ally of Al-Qaeda, has been singled out in particular
for its role in the deadly attacks.
The operation coincides with a number of other
security operations in Iraqi cities, including the
capital Baghdad, the restive mixed city of Baquba
and the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi.
AFP
The former Iraqi president forced about 250,000
Kurdish residents to give up their homes to Arabs in
the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city and the region's
oil industry.
Kirkuk city is not under the full control of
Kurdistan Regional Government administration. A
referendum in 2007 will decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
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