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Heavy Iraqi armored vehicles head to Hamrin Mountains |
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Heavy Iraqi armored vehicles head to
Hamrin Mountains
22.11.2012 |
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November 22, 2012
KIRKUK, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,—
Iraqi heavy armored vehicles left Baghdad heading to
Tuz district and arrived in Hamrin Mountains, a
source from the 16th brigade of the Iraqi army said
on Wednesday.
"A motorcade consists of 11 tanks, 12 hammers
arrived in Hamrin Mountains," the source told Aswat
al-Iraq news agency.
Tensions have been steadily building this week over
the formation of a new command centre for Iraqi
forces to operate in an area over which both Baghdad
and the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) claim
jurisdiction.
On Tuesday, the Iraqi army rushed thousands of
troops and reinforcements to the area after the
Kurdish regional government placed its Peshmerga
militia forces on
high alert
along the arc of disputed territory that spans the
borders of the semiautonomous Kurdish enclave.
Colonel Dhia al-Wakil, a spokesman for the Iraqi
army, said the additional troops were dispatched
“only as a precautionary measure, to face any
possible attack from the Peshmerga.”
But Kurds said they suspect that the reinforcements,
which include tanks and heavy artillery, signal an
intent to attack their forces.
“If the central government keeps sending these extra
troops, we fear there may be clashes,” said Jabar
Yawar, the Peshmerga's secretary general.
“If one bullet is fired, the whole of the disputed
areas will erupt in flames.”
American officials have stepped in to mediate amid
concerns that a crisis that is rapidly becoming the
country’s worst since US troops left almost a year
ago could erupt into a full-blown war.
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