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Anger mounts on decision to deploy Kurdish
militias in Baghdad
10.1.2007 |
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It will be the first time for
Kurdish armed groups to fight in Baghdad and
specifically against their co-religionists, Arab
Muslim Sunnis
Kurdish leaders have decided to deploy their own
militias in the current fighting in Baghdad where
government troops aided by U.S. forces have launched
yet another campaign to secure the restive city.
The move comes as U.S. President George W. Bush is
set to announce his much-awaited for new strategy
for Iraq in which he is expected to announce a surge
in the number of U.S. troops in the country.
Iraqis are skeptical about U.S. plans and experience
shows that any fresh initiatives by the U.S. since
its 2003 invasion have mostly been
counterproductive.
The latest campaign to secure Baghdad comes
following the failure of several others in which
tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops took
part.
Criticism of the current campaign has come mainly
from Sunni leaders who say that the Shiite-dominated
government is solely targeting Sunni-dominated
quarters in Baghdad.
The current campaign has so far avoided the Sadr
City, a stronghold of Mahdi Army, a powerful Shiite
militia group said to be behind much of the current
sectarian violence.
As government troops and U.S. forces were moving to
flush out armed groups from Sunni areas, Madhi Army
units were reported to have attacked Sunni villages
in Baghdad outskirts killing 10 people, injuring
many others and burning 10 houses.
The current campaign is certainly doomed like its
predecessors despite the deployment massive forces,
including battalions from Kurdish
militias (Kurdistan National Guards), locally known
as Peshmerga.
Kurdish militias have not yet arrived in Baghdad but
sources said their deployment was expected to
coincide with the stationing of at least 20,000 more
U.S. troops in the city.
It will be the first time for Kurdish armed groups
to fight in Baghdad and specifically against their
co-religionists, Arab Muslim Sunnis. The majority
Kurds are Sunni Muslims.
Many inside the government of Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki, particularly the few Sunni groups who
have opted to take part in the political process
have come out against the move.
In a sectarian-tainted city like Baghdad it will be
hard to see whether the Kurds will put up a fight
amid religious decrees from top Iraqi Sunni clerics,
many of who are Kurds, banning taking arms against
the resistance and denouncing U.S. troops and the
Iraqi government.
The Mahdi Army itself is a sworn enemy of the
Kurdish Peshmerga militias (Kurdistan National
Guards) and is currently spearheading resistance of
Kurdish moves to annex the oil-rich city of Kirkuk
to their autonomous region.
To order Kurdish militias to fight in Baghdad is
seen by many a dangerous step that is bound to
further deepen the ethnic divisions and add more
fuel to the current sectarian fire.
Mahmoud Othman, a prominent member of the Iraqi
Kurdish Coalition, grouping the region’s two main
factions of Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, said
he was against sending Kurdish militias to fight
against Arabs anywhere in Iraq.
“There are fears that a fight like this pitting
Kurds against the Arabs is bound to add an ethnic
touch to the conflict,” Othman said.
Othman added,”The deployment of Kurdish forces in
Arab areas is wrong and will create sensitivities
and accusations that Kurds are killing the Arabs.
“I am against the move … and there are many in the
Iraqi parliament who are against it, too.”
azzaman com
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