ARBIL: About 100,000 Kurds have fled the Kirkuk region for fear of persecution since Iraqi armed forces retook disputed territory after a Kurdish independence vote rejected by Baghdad, Kurdish officials said on Thursday.
The United Nations voiced concern at reports that civilians, mainly Kurds, were being driven out of parts of northern Iraq retaken by Iraqi forces and their houses and businesses looted and destroyed, and urged Baghdad to stop any such abuses.
In the first incident of deadly violence, a Kurdish man was killed and six wounded by Iraqi security forces while protesting at the army’s takeover of their town, Khanaqin, by Iraqi forces, local Mayor Mohammed Mulla Hassan said.
Kurdish troops had left Khanaqin, near the border with Iran, on Tuesday to avoid clashing with advancing Iraqi forces.
Central government forces swept into Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic city of more than 1 million people and the hub of a major oil-producing area, largely unopposed on Monday after most Kurdish Peshmerga forces withdrew rather than fight.
Iraqi forces also took back control of Kirkuk oilfields, effectively halving the amount of output under the direct control of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a serious blow to the Kurds’ independence quest.
Baghdad’s recovery of Kirkuk, situated just outside the KRG’s official boundaries on disputed land claimed by Kurds, ethnic Turkmen and Arabs, put the city’s Kurds in fear of attack by Shia Muslim paramilitaries, known as Popular Mobilisation, assisting government forces’ operations in the region.
UN relief officials said they had received allegations that 150 houses had been burned and 11 blown up in Tuz Khurmato and offices of Turkmen political parties in Kirkuk assaulted.
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq issued a statement urging the Baghdad government “to take every action to halt any violations and ensure all civilians are protected and that the perpetrators of acts of violence, intimidation and forced displacement of civilians be brought to justice”.
Khanaqin, mainly populated by Kurds, also lies in long contested territory just outside KRG boundaries.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Wednesday that security was being maintained in Kirkuk by local police backed by the elite Counter Terrorism Service, trained and equipped by the United States mainly to fight the militant Islamic State group. “All other armed group should not be allowed to stay,” Abadi said.
Baghdad court issues arrest warrant for Kurd VP
A Baghdad court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the vice president of Iraqi Kurdistan on charges of “provocation” against Iraq’s armed forces, the judiciary said.
Kosrat Rasul had referred to the Iraqi army and federal police as “occupation forces” in a statement on Wednesday, the court said.
In the statement, Rasul one of the two main Kurdish parties, criticised his own group for not having resisted the entry of Iraqi federal forces into the disputed city of Kirkuk on Monday.
Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2017
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