Once a month, Saman Jabbari braves the kidnappers and the suicide bombers to make the perilous three-hour journey south to see the city he calls home but can't yet return to: Kirkuk, the beloved "Jerusalem" of the Kurdish people.
But while some have braved the violence to return, most remain in the relative safety of the Kurdish autonomous region, unwilling to expose their families to the mounting violence in the city. "We can't go home now; not in this situation," Jabbari says. "It's very difficult to see the place of my birth like this."
Comparatively calm during the first days of the anti-American insurrection and the Sunni-Shia civil war that has followed, Kirkuk is rapidly becoming one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq. Kidnappings, assassinations and suicide bombings are becoming increasingly commonplace. Last month, the city of 800,000 was struck by six car bombs in a single day, leading to talk that Kirkuk will be the issue that makes Iraq's civil war a three-way fight, with Kurds fighting both Sunni and Shia Arabs for control of the city.
. . .
Nor are the Kurds innocents in this struggle. As they have stepped up their campaign to reclaim a city they see as having been stolen from them, they have been accused of arson and the killing of livestock, aimed at forcing Arabs to leave the city.
While Kurdish officials dismiss those charges, they are more clearly guilty of working to alter the city's demographics ahead of the referendum. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, and Barzani are behind a plan that offers $19,000 to any Arab families willing to relinquish their property in the city and their right to vote in the referendum.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/world/article/0,1406,KNS_351_5422616,00.html
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