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Iraqi forces withdrew from Khanagin
27.8.2008
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August
27, 2008
DIYALA, Iraq,—, The Iraqi forces
withdrew from the district of Khanaqin after local
residents staged a demonstration demanding their
pullout on Tuesday, the district mayor Mulla
Muhammad Hassan said.
"A force from the Iraqi army withdrew from the
Khanaqin district gates while the rest are currently
withdrawing now," Hassan told VOI.
Earlier in the day Hassan said thousands of
residents of Khanaqin staged a demonstration
protesting the presence of an Iraqi force in the
district and the setting up of several checkpoints
there.
"The demonstrators,www.ekurd.net
who gathered in front of the
mayoralty building, submitted a memo of protest in
which they demanded the exit of the force from the
district, where security conditions are stable,"
Hasan said.
For his part, Mala Bakhtyar, a member of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) politburo, told
VOI "political motives were behind the Iraqi army
forces' entry into the district," not giving more
details.
The Khanaqin municipal council chief, Sameer
Muhammad, said during the demonstration that the
measure was "a red line and will get a response from
the masses".
The autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan government had set up
the Kermyan administration to run the districts of
Khanaqin, 155 km northeast of Baaquba, the capital
city of Diala province, and Kafri, Klar and Jamjamal.
The Iraqi forces, with logistical support from the
U.S. forces, have launched a large-scale security
campaign in July codenamed Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise
of Good) in a number of cities and districts of
Diala with the aim of eliminating armed groups
active in those areas.
The operation has recently advanced to areas
belonging to Khanaqin district,www.ekurd.net
where the Kurdish peshmerga forces withdrew from the districts of Qara
Taba and Jalawlaa through an agreement between the
Kurdish authorities and the central government in
Baghdad.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces
withdraw from Khaneqin on August 19,
the Peshmerga brigade, comprising 4,000 troops, was
located in Diyala to protect the Kurdish civilians
in the district.
Diyala province, a restive part of Iraq outside the
Kurdish autonomous zone but home to many Kurds.
Khanaqin is one of the areas subject to dispute
between the two sides pending a hoped-for solution
is reached over it through the application of
article 140 of the Iraqi constitution.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas. It calls for conducting a
census to be followed by a referendum to let the
inhabitants decide whether they would like Kirkuk to
be annexed to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region
or having it as an independent province.
These stages were supposed to end on December 31,
2007, a deadline that was later extended to six
months to end in July 2008.
The former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had forced over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up
their homes to Arabs in the 1970s in a bid to "Arabize"
the city and the region's oil industry.
Kurds, however, seek to include the city in the
autonomous Iraq's Kurdistan region, while Sunni
Muslims, Turkmen and Shiites oppose the
incorporation. The article currently stipulates that
all Arabs in Kirkuk be returned to their original
locations in southern and central Iraqi areas, and
formerly displaced residents returned to Kirkuk.
The article also calls for conducting a census to be
followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed
to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having
it as an independent province.
Kirkuk city is historically a Kurdish city
and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region, the population is a mix of
majority Kurds and minority of Arabs, Christians and
Turkmen. lies 250 km northeast of Baghdad. Kurds
have a strong cultural and emotional attachment to Kirkuk,
which they call "the Kurdish Jerusalem."
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI
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