Iraq: Iraqi army readies for showdown with Kurds

[sabra]

Source: The Guardian

Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga forces are bracing for conflict in the disputed city of Khanaqin in the most serious threat of clashes between Arabs and Kurds since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

A delegation flew from Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish regional government, to Baghdad at the weekend to try to resolve the crisis. The two main Kurdish parties are allied and form part of Iraq's coalition government.

However, Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region, and leader of the Kurdish Democratic party, said Iraq was still living under the influence of Saddam's regime and the central government was not serious about sharing power with Kurds. He claimed many military decisions were made without consultations with General Babakir Zebari, a Kurd who is the Iraqi army's chief of staff.

Gen Zebari, apparently torn between competing loyalties, visited Khanaqin on Monday and was quoted in the Baghdad media as saying Iraqi troops had the right to launch operations in the area.

The crisis has grown since July when the Iraqi government ordered peshmerga forces to withdraw to Kurdistan from Diyala. It also told the two main Kurdish parties to move out of the numerous government buildings in Diyala which they had taken over when Saddam's regime fell.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/03/iraq.kurds

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VOI has an update:

http://www.aswataliraq.info/look/english/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrArticle=91695&NrIssue=2&NrSection=1

Security forces to leave Khanaqin, Peshmerga to return

Diala - Voices of Iraq

Wednesday , 03 /09 /2008 Time 9:20:45

DIALA, Sept. 3 (VOI) – Representatives of the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Wednesday agreed to withdraw Iraqi army personnel and return the Peshmerga forces to Khanaqin district.

"Things will return to the way they were before the entry of Iraqi security forces into the district…," according to a representative of the Iraqi minister of defense, the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi army, Staff Gen. Babakir Zibari; and a representative of Iraq's Kurdistan president, Mullah Bakhtiar during a joint press conference held today in Khanaqin (155 km northeast of Baaquba).

In cooperation with the Multi-National Force (MNF), Iraqi security forces have been conducting a wide-scale security operation called Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good) since July 2008 in Diala with the aim of tracking down armed groups in the province. The operation has recently extended to include areas affiliated with the province, including Khanaqin district.
Following an agreement between Kurdish authorities and the central government in Baghdad, Peshmerga forces withdrew from the districts of Qurat Taba and Jalawlaa, which are affiliated with Khanaqin.
The Peshmerga is a term used by the Kurds to refer to armed Kurdish fighters.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, pertaining to the situation in Kirkuk, is expected to put an end to the controversy over disputed areas, including Khanaqin.

[Deny and Shred]

1. Is it a Civil War yet? Will the Peacekeepers just sit back and watch?

[LynnTheDem]

2. And then George W. bUsh can screech about the Iraqis "mass graving their own people"

when the Iraqis slaughter the Kurds.

And of course most Americans will never ever know the fact of the war that's been ongoing for years between the two main Kurd factions. The war that's killed far more Kurds than Hussein ever did.

Nor will most Americans ever discover the fact that the current Kurd leader and bUsh puppet in fact called on Hussein's help (and kissed Saddam's cheek in gratitude) to fight the other Kurd leader.

Facts aren't something most Americans are familiar or comfortable with.