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Violence Surges in Contested City of
Kirkuk
20.7.2006
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KIRKUK, Kurdistan-Iraq — A surge in violence in
this oil-rich city divided among Kurds, Sunni Arabs
and Turkmens vying for power has alarmed Iraqi
officials amid intensifying sectarian warfare in
central and southern Iraq.
Kirkuk has been contested ground since the 2003
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, when Kurds displaced by
Saddam Hussein and previous Sunni Arab-dominated
governments began returning to their former homes.
Sunni Arab political leaders believe the Kurds are
trying to push them out of the northern city and
intend to annex it to the Kurdish region of Iraq.
Kurds believe that Kirkuk is part of a greater
Kurdistan and that they have a historic claim to the
city.
American officials have encouraged the groups to
work out their differences politically. And by
Iraq's standards, Kirkuk has remained relatively
peaceful. But the number of bombings, assassinations
and other attacks has risen sharply, both in Kirkuk
and smaller cities around it, Iraqi officials say.
So far this month, at least 84 people have been
killed in Kirkuk and surrounding areas.
A new report by the International Crisis Group, a
Brussels-based think tank, calls on the
international community to step in to resolve the
"mounting tensions" in Kirkuk or risk full military
conflict in the city.
The United Nations should begin to negotiate a
compromise under which Kirkuk and the surrounding
countryside would become an area separate from the
Kurdish region to the north, the report says.
Kurdish-dominated security forces have been the
targets of several deadly attacks that officials
believe were carried out by Sunni Arab insurgents.
Car bombers and snipers have also hit police and
army checkpoints and patrols outside the city.
On Wednesday, six police officers and four civilians
were wounded when a roadside bomb was detonated near
a security patrol in southern Kirkuk.
In response to the rising violence, the Iraqi army
announced that it had begun an operation targeting
insurgents in Rashad, west of Kirkuk.
The offensive was planned by Iraqi forces, an Iraqi
army official said.
"This region has lately witnessed escalations of
armed attacks against the security forces and Iraqi
civilians," the official said.
The official, who asked that his name be withheld
because he feared for his family's safety if he was
publicly identified, said Iraqi and American troops
were participating in the offensive.
But U.S. military officials in Baghdad said they
were not aware of the operation.
Rashad was the scene of an attack on an Iraqi army
checkpoint this month that left a dozen dead, police
officials said. Iraqi authorities believe the Sunni
insurgent groups operating in the area may also be
responsible for some of the attacks in Kirkuk.
The violence in Kirkuk and surrounding cities has
been increasing since the death of militant leader
Abu Musab Zarqawi, local authorities said.
Five car bombs have been detonated in Kirkuk since
the U.S. airstrike that killed the Al Qaeda in Iraq
leader on June 7, Iraqi officials said.
Kirkuk police say the rising violence is the result
of a campaign by Sunni insurgent groups to erode
Kurdish residents' sense of security.
Some Sunni Arab leaders blame the United States for
the rise in violence, saying U.S. troops have moved
some Iraqi security forces out of volatile parts of
the region, leaving the areas without adequate
police or army protection.
Rakan Saeed, a Sunni Arab politician, said that
Iraqi security forces had been withdrawn from Hawija,
an Arab city outside Kirkuk, and should be moved
back to counter the rising violence.
"The area needs more police elements," Saeed said,
"especially the places that see increased terrorist
activity."
Attacks in Hawija have killed at least eight Iraqi
police officers.
Saeed accused the U.S. military of failing to
properly train or equip the Iraqi army and police
units stationed in the majority Arab towns that
surround Kirkuk.
He and other politicians in Hawija have called for
the security forces in the areas around Kirkuk to be
mostly Sunni.
U.S. military officers have contended that they are
trying to create an integrated force in the area.
The American officials in Kirkuk have been
suspicious of Saeed, a charismatic strongman,
believing that he consolidates his power by
denouncing the U.S. military presence in the area.
Under Hussein, the Iraqi government intensified a
long-standing Baghdad policy of "Arabization" of
Kirkuk and the surrounding Al Tamim province.
Kurdish families were driven out of the city and
countryside and Sunni Arab families were moved north
to take their place. Provincial maps were redrawn to
bolster Arab population numbers in oil-rich areas.
Hussein believed that his control over Iraq's
northern oil fields would be secure only if there
was a Sunni Arab majority in Kirkuk and its
countryside. The city, once majority Kurd with a
sizable minority of Turkmens — who are ethnically
related to the Turks — became far more Arab.
Although Kurds still claim a majority in the city,
American officials estimate it is roughly one-third
Kurdish, one-third Turkmen and one-third Sunni Arab.
The Iraqi Constitution, approved by voters last
year, postponed a decision on the future of Kirkuk.
The constitution says a referendum must be held by
the end of 2007 to determine whether Kirkuk should
be part of the Kurdish region.
Sunni Arabs believe their rights will be protected
if Kirkuk remains outside the control of the Kurdish
region.
Kurdish leaders in Kirkuk are determined that their
people be in the majority before that vote.
In its report, the Crisis Group called for the
referendum to be postponed and said holding it next
year would heighten tensions further.
"Within a year, therefore, Kurds will face a basic
choice," the report says: "to press ahead with the
constitutional mechanisms over everyone's resistance
and risk violent conflict, or take a step back and
seek a negotiated solution." Each side sees itself
the victim of the violence, Kurds because they are
attacked by Sunni Arabs, Sunni Arabs because they
believe the Kurds are trying to push them out, and
Turkmens because they feel unjustly caught in the
middle.
On July 10, a car bomb killed three when it exploded
outside the offices of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, a Kurdish political party.
The city has also seen an increase in political
assassinations, security officials said. Both
Turkmen and Kurdish political leaders and their
families have been targeted in the attacks.
But not all attacks have been overtly directed at
political figures or security forces.
On Wednesday, an improvised explosive device
exploded in downtown Kirkuk, the second recent
attack on a cafe, a police official said.
The bomb, which one witness said was hidden in a
nylon bag, killed three people and injured 19.
"We were passing by the Kirkuk Appeals Court, then a
big explosion rocked the place," Mohammed Kadhim
said. "We rushed to the scene and saw civilians
injured and others killed."
The cafe bombings appear designed to increase the
perception of danger and chaos in Kirkuk, thus
dissuading people from returning, especially Kurds
living in the more peaceful north.
latimes com
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