Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces
are seen in a tank flying the Kurdish flag some 20
kilometres north of Kirkuk on November 24, 2012. Photo:
AFP
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June 11, 2013
KIRKUK, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,—
More than 1,000 Kurdish career soldiers in the Iraqi
army have deserted and want to be integrated into
forces loyal to Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region,
officials said on Tuesday.
The move comes after the Kurdish troops disobeyed
orders to take part in an operation ordered by the
Shiite-led government in Baghdad against a mainly
Sunni Arab town.
If their request is fulfilled, such a mass defection
would deal a heavy blow to Iraq's stretched armed
forces as they grapple with a surge in violence that
has sparked fears of renewed sectarian bloodshed.
Two officials said the 1,070 Kurdish members of the
Iraqi army's 16th Brigade mutinied when gunmen took
control of a northern town in April, and
subsequently declined to attend disciplinary
re-training.
The soldiers were no longer receiving salaries or
rations from the Iraqi army, nor were they following
any orders from federal forces, according to the
mayor of the town where they are based.
His comments were
echoed by the spokesman for the Kurdish ministry
responsible for Peshmerga forces, the former rebel
militia that is now part of Kurdistan's security
forces.
But the officials differed as to whether the
soldiers' request to join the Peshmerga had been
met.
The troops had been assigned to the ethnically-mixed
towns of Tuz Khurmatu and Sulaiman Bek, the latter
of which briefly fell to gunmen in April.
According to Tuz Mayor Shallal Abdul, they stood
accused of refusing to follow orders as Sulaiman Bek,
a mostly-Arab town, was overrun. As punishment,www.ekurd.net
they were ordered to attend re-training. Three
senior Kurdish officers were also replaced with
Arabs, Abdul said.
The troops did not follow orders to stay and defend
the town against the Sunni Arab gunmen because they
did not want to further raise tensions between Arabs
and Kurds in what is a swathe of disputed territory
claimed by both the central government and Kurdish
authorities.
"The forces ... are still deployed to their
positions, but they are receiving their salaries and
orders from the Peshmerga ministry," Abdul told AFP.
Peshmerga ministry spokesman Halkurd Mullah Ali
confirmed that the soldiers were not carrying out
Baghdad's orders, and added that Kurdish authorities
were providing rations because officials
"sympathised with them".
But he denied that the soldiers were receiving
either wages or orders from Peshmerga commanders.
"We will discuss their situation with the joint
security committee (of the Baghdad government and
the autonomous Kurdish regional administration)," he
said.
"If we do not reach an agreement with Baghdad about
them, we are ready to integrate them into Peshmerga
forces."
The mass defection comes at a crucial time for
Iraq's security forces, which are dealing with a
massive spike in violence, months of protests in
Sunni Arab provinces, and fears of spillover from
the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
"This happens in places where you have a severe
division of loyalties," warned John Drake, an Iraq
analyst for risk consultancy firm AKE Group.
"These tensions are being driven by ethnic and
sectarian identity, so when you have got community
identity having more of an impact on your job and
your efforts to enforce security, you are not going
to be an effective force."
He added that it seemed as though "employees of the
government -- because that is what they are -- feel
that the situation is out of control, and they are
resorting to insubordination.
"That would be a worrying sign. It would indicate a
lack of belief in the state."
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency,
AFP
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