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Iraqi forces take control of Diyala's
disputed town
29.8.2008
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August
29, 2008
DIYALA, Iraq,—, Iraqi army commander on
Thursday said central government troops are
wrestling control of most of Diyala’s disputed town
of Khanaqin from Kurdish peshmerga forces.
"Iraqi soldiers are totally controlling the areas of
Qara Tapa, Jalawla,www.ekurd.net
and al-Saadiya of
Khanaqin suburb (155 km northeastern Diyala
province)," Brigadier Muneim Ali, commander of the
Iraqi army 5th division 4th brigade, told VOI.
"Senior figures of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK – President Jalal Talabani's party) in those
areas received the Iraqi army troops with flowers,"
he said.
Kurdish forces refused Iraqi defence ministry orders
to pull out of Kurdish-populated areas of ethnically
divided Diyala province where they have been
deployed for the past two years, but then conceded
Iraqi army deployment in some areas of the disputed
town of Khanaqin.
The deployment of Iraqi troops in Khanaqin unleashed
strong protest of Kurdish official, considering the
measures as provocative and a political tool to
influence Kurd’s stances in controversial provincial
polls law.
On Wednesday, the president of Iraq's Kurdistan
region, Massoud Barzani, expressed his surprise at
the raid conducted by Iraqi army personnel on
Khanaqin district, which he
described as a "safe" area.
The remark was made on during his reception of a
high-ranking delegation from the U.S. embassy,www.ekurd.net
according to a statement
released by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
"Khanaqin is a safe area and it's a wonder that the
Iraqi army entered it under the pretext of combating
terrorism," Barzani said.
The Kurdish president wondered why the Iraqi army
did not coordinate with the regional government.
Following an agreement between Kurdish authorities
and the central government in Baghdad, Peshmerga
forces withdrew from the districts of Qurtuba and
Jalawlaa, which are affiliated with Khanaqin.
Diyala province, a restive part of Iraq outside the
Kurdish autonomous zone but home to many Kurds.
Peshmerga is a term used by the Kurds to refer to
armed Kurdistani forces.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is enacted by
the Iraqi parliament to put an end to the
controversy over disputed areas, including Kirkuk
and Khanaqin.
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."
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.
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, to "Arabize" the
city and the region's oil industry.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI |
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