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Popular Support Key to Security in Iraqi
Kurdistan city of Erbil
11.5.2007
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Wednesday's
suicide truck bombing
in Kurdistan region (northern Iraq) the capital city
of Erbil was the city's first major bomb attack in
two years.
May
11, 2007
Erbil (Kurdistan region (Iraq)
VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Erbil on why
residents believe the city has been relatively
untouched by the chaotic violence that has gripped
the rest of the country.
Erbil is less than 100 kilometers from the violent
cities of Kirkuk and Mosul - where insurgent
militias launch raids and suicide bomb attacks
almost every day.
If you ask residents why Erbil has been safe, when
there is near constant fighting nearby, most people
say the same thing:
the public supports the security forces.
This man is a longtime Erbil resident who works in
trading.
"All the people here when they see some strange
things or strange people they try to ask them why
they are here," he said.
"If they [the people] make any problems they call
the government and tell them there is some strange
thing. That is very helpful for the peace here."
Erbil residents interviewed by VOA declined to give
their names, saying they did not want to be
identified when talking about the security measures
following Wednesday's attack.
Security in Erbil has been tightened since the blast
near the interior ministry, with more police and
military forces out in the streets and thorough
inspections at the city's numerous traffic
checkpoints.
This man in a downtown barbershop says residents
also participate in maintaining security by
occasionally acting as vigilantes.
He says many times people do that but they keep it
secret and they don't tell anyone that they took
action.
Khaled Salah is a spokesman for the Kurdistan
Regional Government. He says Kurdish security forces
have been improving their effectiveness and building
trust among the local population since the region
gained autonomy in 1992.
While Erbil is largely peaceful now, the city and
much of the Kurdish-controlled north was a
battleground for decades in fighting against Saddam
Hussein's military. After the region gained autonomy
in 1992, Kurdish factions then fought a brutal civil
war.
A woman who works as a translator in Erbil says
those wars provided experience for dealing with
Iraq's current conflict, but also made people weary
of fighting.
"You know, we've been suffering a lot from these
things from almost 35 years ago and we want to live
our life just like other people - not killing and
bombing," she said.
As fighting continues in the rest of Iraq, more
people from the south are moving to the Kurdish
north to escape the violence.
Many of the new arrivals are Arabs and some are
viewed with suspicion by locals who worry they will
cause problems. Arabs who come here must have a
trusted resident vouch for them, or they will be
turned away at the city's checkpoints.
This resident of Erbil, who is member of Iraq's
ethnic minority Turkmen population, says he believes
the recent bomb attack was a message from Arab
militants who are angry at the city's reputation as
a safe harbor.
He says because many Arabs are leaving their towns
in the south, this bomb was to tell the Arabs that
also it is not safe here.
Wednesday's bomb attack targeted the heart of the
Kurdish government's security branches -- just
outside the interior ministry and the main offices
of the Kurdish intelligence.
Officials say they suspect the bomber was from
outside the Kurdistan region and was affiliated with
the Sunni militant group Ansar al Islam.
But they also say that, as in the city's two
previous major bomb attacks in 2004 and 2005, the
bomber probably had help from Erbil residents - a
rare betrayal in the otherwise unified city.
voanews com
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