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US remains at forefront of Iraq's 'trigger
line'
29.8.2010 |
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August 29, 2010
GORGA CHAL, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,
— When the US army ends its Iraq combat mission this
week, Captain TJ Tepley will stay on the frontline
-- keeping the peace at the centre of what
commanders say is the country's biggest challenge.
The 27-year-old leads a company made up not only of
US troops, but also of Arab and Kurdish soldiers
whose job is to patrol a disputed tract of land in
oil-rich Kirkuk province in the north, trying to
abate ethnic tensions.
While thousands of fellow Americans have packed
their kit and headed home as part of plans to reduce
the US military presence in Iraq to 50,000 troops,
Tepley and his comrades will remain in the field on
a separate mission.
"Overall, big picture, sure -- things have changed.
We went from more than 100,000 soldiers to 50,000 in
a few months," said Tepley, from Cleveland, Ohio. |
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. Kurds have a strong cultural and emotional
attachment to Kirkuk, which they call "the Kurdish
Jerusalem." Kurds see it as the rightful and
perfect capital of an autonomous Kurdistan state. |
"But on September 1, the
CSF (Combined Security Force) is still going to be
here," he said as his heavily armoured MRAP (Mine
Resistant, Ambush Protected) vehicle rumbled towards
the tiny village of Gorga Chal, north of Kirkuk
city.
Tepley's company, and several others like it, are
key to efforts to end a long-running dispute between
the central government in Baghdad and the north's
autonomous Kurdistan region, over the 650-kilometre
(400-mile) strip of land.
Dubbed the "trigger line" because of fears that
tensions could eventually spill over into armed
conflict, the disputed area spreads across Iraq from
Syria to Iran.
The tripartite security force which Tepley is part
of was inaugurated in January after first being
mooted by the top US commander in Iraq, General Ray
Odierno, a year ago.
But in a nod to the withdrawal -- all American
troops must leave Iraq by the end of next year,
under the terms of a Baghdad-Washington security
pact -- US generals are aiming to reduce American
involvement and re-configure the force.
"What I would like to see happen is they go from
tripartite to bilateral," US Major General Anthony
Cucolo, referring to the patrols, told AFP in Tikrit.
The plan could see Americans supervise the Iraqi
army and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters currently
working alongside US soldiers,www.ekurd.netCucolo
said, but eventually the patrols would have to be by
police or disbanded altogether.
For now, though, US troops in Tepley's company
remain firmly in the lead: in a meeting with Gorga
Chal's village chief Ramadan Mohammed at the local
school, only he and Lieutenant Daniel Spurrier, 23,
spoke to the "mukhtar."
Only after prompting from Tepley towards the end of
the meeting did the lone Iraqi soldier present,
Sergeant Arif Safa Hussein Abdul Ali, eventually
speak to the mukhtar.
The territorial dispute stems largely from the
so-called "Arabisation" policies of Saddam Hussein.
Human Rights Watch estimates the dictator forcibly
removed 120,000 Kurds from Kirkuk between 1991 and
his ouster in 2003.
After the US-led invasion seven years ago, Kurdish
forces advanced south and west, staking a claim over
what many in Kirkuk and the nearby provinces of
Nineveh and Diyala say is Arab land.
In the years since, both sides have traded
allegations of attempting to deliberately increase
their own ethnic populations, in a bid to secure the
province's energy resources and resulting income.
The mistrust and consequent lack of cooperation
between Arab and Kurdish forces has left what US
commanders label a "seam" that has been exploited by
criminal and insurgent networks.
Since the joint forces began operating checkpoints
and conducting patrols in January, however, Gorga
Chal chief Mohammed says he has seen security
improve.
"When the US leaves, I can only hope they will stay
together and continue to provide security --
together," the 40-year-old told AFP.
While senior American commanders insist relations
are good on the ground between Arabs and Kurds,
comments by Mohammed show that tensions remain and
memories linger.
"This was the problem -- under Saddam, we were moved
north to Kurdistan," Mohammed told Tepley and
Spurrier during their meeting. "But I am from
Kirkuk."
Tepley admitted that he often struggles to grapple
with the complexities of the region and its history.
"Some of these things are hard to grasp," he noted,
adding later: "When you hear about Iraq in the
United States, it's usually about the Sunni-Shiite
situation," alluding to the conflict between rival
Muslim sects that killed tens of thousands of people
after the 2003 invasion.
"But then you get here, and now you're dealing with
Kurds and Arabs."
With no new government yet formed in Baghdad since
elections nearly six months ago, the prospect of a
deal between Arabs and Kurds seems a long way off.
"All we need is for the government to form and,
inshallah (God willing), everything will be fine,"
Lieutenant Spurrier said during the meeting with
Mohammed.
"Patience is hard, I know, but we have to let it
play out."
Mohammed replied: "Yes, we must wait. I'm sure if
you look at every country in the world I challenge
any of them to be as patient as Iraqis."
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
AFP
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