Kirkuk shaping up as flashpoint ahead of Kurdistan independence vote

Kurdish vendors wait for customers at a market in the mainly Kurdish Iraqi city of Kirkuk. (AFP)
Updated 20 September 2017
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Kirkuk shaping up as flashpoint ahead of Kurdistan independence vote

KIRKUK, IRAQ: Visitors to Kirkuk in northern Iraq are greeted by an imposing statue of a Kurdish Peshmerga fighter with a gun slung over his shoulder, a reminder of tensions building in the hotly-contested city ahead of a referendum on Kurdish independence.
Erected in July, the statue has come to symbolize how the Kurds want to cement their hold on oil-rich Kirkuk and other parts of the region by holding next Monday’s vote. Peshmerga, which means those who confront death, are the military forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The referendum is risky, especially in Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic city also claimed by Arabs since oil was discovered there in the 1930s. The Kurdistan region produces around 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil.
The central government in Baghdad, Iraq’s neighbors and Western powers fear the vote could divide the country and spark a wider regional conflict, after Arabs and Kurds cooperated to dislodge Daesh from its stronghold in Mosul.
Already at least one Kurd has been killed in pre-referendum clashes, and security checkpoints have been erected across the city to prevent further violence.
But the Kurds say they are determined to go ahead with the vote, which, though non-binding, could trigger the process of separation in a country already divided along sectarian and ethnic lines. Iran, Turkey, the United States and Western allies oppose the vote.
Some non-Kurds fear Baghdad will attempt to regain control of Kirkuk and send in Shiite militias (PMU), also known as the Hashid Al-Shaabi, stationed just outside the province.
“I fear the Hashid will come and fighting will start in Kirkuk,” said Nazim Mohammed, an Arab from Mosul who fled to Kirkuk when the northern city was overrun by Daesh.
Backed by Iran, the militias fear an independent Kurdistan would split Iraq, giving them and Tehran less influence.
Kirkuk, populated by Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and other minorities, is one of 15 ethnically mixed areas in northern Iraq that will participate in the referendum. They are claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government(KRG).
A decision by KRG President Massoud Barzani to include these so-called disputed territories in the plebiscite was widely interpreted as a unilateral move to consolidate Kurdish control.
Critics say Kurdish intentions were already clear before the referendum was announced. Peshmerga fighters seized Kirkuk in 2014, after fleeing Iraqi security forces left its oil fields vulnerable to Daesh militants who had just swept across northern Iraq.
The statue is dedicated to the Peshmerga and is designed to represent the appreciation of the people of Kirkuk.

Kurds mark out territory
Tensions between the KRG and Baghdad are not new, and hinge on oil revenue. The Kurds have long accused Baghdad of failing to make budget payments to the region, while central government has opposed oil deals made by the Kurds without its consent.
Nevertheless, the Kurds have been marking their territory in the run-up to the vote. Peshmerga outposts dot the area, protecting the flaming oil fields on Kirkuk’s outskirts. Kurdish flags have been hoisted across the city since the spring, and now fly alongside Iraqi flags on government buildings.
Dreaming of long-denied statehood since World War One, the Kurds say the are ready to fight if necessary. “Kurdistan’s land belongs to the Kurdish people,” Kemal Al-Kirkuki, the Kurdish military commander responsible for the front-line against Daesh, told Reuters at his base in Dibis.
“No one, not the PMU, has the right to take it ... We will ask them to leave Kurdish territory, peacefully. But we are prepared to fight if we need to.”
On Monday, clashes broke out in Kirkuk after a Kurdish convoy celebrating the referendum drove by a Turkmen political party’s office. A Kurd was killed, and two others were injured, security sources said.
This followed a week of escalating rhetoric between the Kurdish leadership and Baghdad, where parliament voted to reject the referendum and oust Kirkuk’s Kurdish governor, Najmaddin Kareem.
The conflict over the disputed territories is bitter. If the Kurdistan region of Iraq declared a break-off from Baghdad, Kirkuk would fall right on the border between the two. Kirkuk produces around one quarter of the region’s oil.
“If the Kurds want to press for a separation of sorts,” said Joost Hiltermann, MENA program director at the International Crisis Group, “the boundary question becomes critically important.”
“If Baghdad and Erbil continue to take unilateral steps,” he said, “things can only escalate.”
There are no reliable statistics on Kirkuk’s population, where both Kurds and Arabs say they have a demographic majority; vital to legitimize their respective claims over the province.

Returning kurds
Kirkuk was meant to have a census under the 2005 constitution, drafted two years after former Iraqi leader Saddam was toppled in the US-led invasion, but it did not take place because of the risk of ethnic and religious tensions.
During Saddam’s Anfal campaign waged against the Kurds in the 1980s, there was a forced “Arabization” of disputed areas, which ejected Kurds from the province. Arabs from other parts of Iraq were then settled, taking over Kurdish homes and businesses.
In 1988, Saddam caused international outrage by staging a chemical attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja which killed thousands of people.
Many Arabs have been ousted since Saddam was toppled in 2003, emboldening the Kurds to reclaim large parts of the disputed territories, including Kirkuk. Displaced Kurds were provided with incentives to return, while Kurds from other areas were also moved in, angering other minorities.
“Since 2003 some 600,000 Kurds have arrived, many of them are here illegally,” said Ali Mehdi Sadiq, a Turkman member of Kirkuk’s local council. “Without dialogue everything is possible. We need to avoid a war engulfing the whole of Iraq.”

“Nothing comes without a price”
He blamed Governor Kareem, a Kurd who lived for more than 30 years in the United States for what he called a Kurdish discrimination of minorities.
The governor said the Kurds would guarantee minorities’ rights, pointing to relative stability in the Kurdistan region in contrast to Baghdad where suicide bombings are frequent.
But his support for Kurdish independence is worrying minorities: he refused to sit behind an Iraqi flag during an interview, preferring the Kurdish one and said he would destroy his Iraqi passport the minute he got a Kurdish one.
He shrugged off the decision by Iraq’s parliament last week to sack him as “unlawful,” adding: “This is a proud day for me.”
Anticipating trouble ahead, some residents of Kirkuk have been stockpiling basic foods such as flour, rice and milk.
“Since they announced the referendum I have hardly had any customers. The market is dead,” said 27-year-old Ali Hamza, an Arab who has a small textiles shop in the old city.
Several Kurds interviewed supported the independence vote but privately said they were worried about clashes afterwards.
But faced with his people’s fears of clashes and economic problems, Governor Kareem said that when taking a big step like the referendum, “anything was possible.”
“Nothing comes without a price.”


Anxiety clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

Updated 5 sec ago
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Anxiety clouds Easter for West Bank Christians

  • ‘There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it’

ZABABDEH: In the mainly Christian Palestinian town of Zababdeh, the runup to Easter has been overshadowed by nearby Israeli military operations, which have proliferated in the occupied West Bank alongside the Gaza war.

This year unusually Easter falls on the same weekend for all of the town’s main Christian communities — Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican — and residents have attempted to busy themselves with holiday traditions like making date cakes or getting ready for the scout parade.

But their minds have been elsewhere.

Dozens of families from nearby Jenin have found refuge in Zababdeh from the continual Israeli military operations that have devastated the city and its adjacent refugee camp this year.

“The other day, the (Israeli) army entered Jenin, people were panicking, families were running to pick up their children,” said Zababdeh resident Janet Ghanam.

“There is a constant fear, you go to bed with it, you wake up with it,” the 57-year-old Anglican added, before rushing off to one of the last Lenten prayers before Easter.

Ghanam said her son had told her he would not be able to visit her for Easter this year, for fear of being stuck at the Israeli military roadblocks that have mushroomed across the territory.

Zababdeh looks idyllic, nestled in the hills of the northern West Bank, but the roar of Israeli air force jets sometimes drowns out the sound of its church bells.

“It led to a lot of people to think: ‘Okay, am I going to stay in my home for the next five years?’” said Saleem Kasabreh, an Anglican deacon in the town.

“Would my home be taken away? Would they bomb my home?“

Kasabreh said this “existential threat” was compounded by constant “depression” at the news from Gaza, where the death toll from the Israel’s response to Hamas’s October 2023 attack now tops 51,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Zababdeh has been spared the devastation wreaked on Gaza, but the mayor’s office says nearly 450 townspeople lost their jobs in Israel when Palestinian work permits were rescinded after the Hamas attack.

“Israel had never completely closed us in the West Bank before this war,” said 73-year-old farmer Ibrahim Daoud. “Nobody knows what will happen.”

Many say they are stalked by the spectre of exile, with departures abroad fueling fears that Christians may disappear from the Holy Land.

“People can’t stay without work and life isn’t easy,” said 60-year-old math teacher Tareq Ibrahim.

Mayor Ghassan Daibes echoed his point.

“For a Christian community to survive, there must be stability, security and decent living conditions. It’s a reality, not a call for emigration,” he said.

“But I’m speaking from lived experience: Christians used to make up 30 percent of the population in Palestine; today, they are less than one percent.

“And this number keeps decreasing. In my own family, I have three brothers abroad — one in Germany, the other two in the United States.”

Catholic priest Elias Tabban adopted a more stoical attitude, insisting his congregation’s spirituality had never been so vibrant.

“Whenever the Church is in hard times... (that’s when) you see the faith is growing,” Tabban said.


Houthi media says US air strikes hit Sanaa

People inspect the site of a reported US airstrike in Sanaa, a day after the attack. (File/AFP)
Updated 42 min 20 sec ago
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Houthi media says US air strikes hit Sanaa

  • Houthi-held areas of Yemen have endured near-daily strikes, blamed on the United States, since Washington launched an air campaign against the militia on March 15

SANAA: Houthi media said more than a dozen air strikes hit the militia-held capital Sanaa on Wednesday, blaming them on the United States.
Houthi-held areas of Yemen have endured near-daily strikes, blamed on the United States, since Washington launched an air campaign against the militia on March 15 in an attempt to end their threats to shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
“Fourteen air strikes carried out by American aggression hit the Al-Hafa area in the Al-Sabeen district in the capital,” the Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV reported.
It also reported strikes blamed on the United States in the Hazm area of Jawf province.
The US campaign followed Houthi threats to resume their attacks on international shipping over Israel’s aid blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Since March 15, the Houthis have also resumed attacks targeting US military ships and Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis began targeting ships transiting the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as Israeli territory, after the Gaza war began in October 2023, later pausing their attacks during a recent two-month ceasefire.
Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza at the beginning of March and resumed its offensive in the Palestinian territory on March 18, ending the truce.
The vital Red Sea route, connecting to the Suez Canal, normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic, but the Houthi attacks forced many companies to make a long detour around the tip of southern Africa.


At least 8,000 missing in war-torn Sudan in 2024: Red Cross

Updated 16 April 2025
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At least 8,000 missing in war-torn Sudan in 2024: Red Cross

PORT SUDAN: At least 8,000 people were reported missing in war-ravaged Sudan in 2024, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday, adding that the figure is just “the tip of the iceberg.”
“These are just the cases we have collected directly,” Daniel O’Malley, head of the ICRC delegation in Sudan, told AFP. “We know this is just a small percentage — the tip of the iceberg — of the whole caseload of missing.”


Qatar renews $60m grant for Lebanon army salaries

Updated 16 April 2025
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Qatar renews $60m grant for Lebanon army salaries

  • The provisions were to enable Lebanon’s army to “carry out its national duties of maintaining stability”
  • The Lebanese President arrived in Qatar on Tuesday

DOHA: Qatar is to renew a $60 million grant to pay the salaries of Lebanon’s army and provide 162 military vehicles, the two countries said on Wednesday following Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s first official visit to the Gulf state.
Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani “announced the renewal of the Qatari grant to support the salaries of the Lebanese army, amounting to USD 60 million, in addition to 162 military vehicles,” a joint statement said.
It added the provisions were to enable Lebanon’s army to “carry out its national duties of maintaining stability and controlling the borders throughout Lebanese territory.”
Aoun, who was elected in January after more than two years of caretaker government in Beirut, has been tasked with charting a course out of the country’s worst economic crisis and reconstruction after all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Lebanese President arrived in Qatar on Tuesday accompanied by foreign minister Youssef Raggi, and departed Doha on Wednesday afternoon, the official Qatar News Agency reported.
The Gulf state in February pledged support for reconstruction in Lebanon after the recent conflict and was already a provider of financial and in-kind support to the Lebanese army.
“Both sides emphasized the national role of the Lebanese army, the importance of supporting it, and the need to implement Resolution 1701 in all its provisions,” the joint statement added, urging “de-escalation in southern Lebanon.”
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and formed the basis of the November truce that largely ended more than a year of fresh hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed group.
The resolution calls for the disarmament of all non-state armed groups and said Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon.
Israel was due to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops in five places it deems “strategic.”


Jordan briefs Lebanon on investigation into terrorist cell

Jordan’s King Abdullah and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. (File/AFP)
Updated 16 April 2025
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Jordan briefs Lebanon on investigation into terrorist cell

  • Beirut unsure if Lebanese citizens involved in missile-making group
  • Army intelligence arrests 2 Palestinians for smuggling weapons across Lebanon-Syria border

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun was briefed by Jordan’s King Abdullah on Wednesday on the results of investigations into a missile manufacturing cell uncovered in Jordan, two members of which had been sent to Lebanon for training.

According to his media office, Aoun expressed Lebanon’s “full readiness for coordination and cooperation” between the two countries and instructed Justice Minister Adel Nassar to work with his Jordanian counterpart, in cooperation with the security and judicial agencies, on the investigations and the exchange of information.

A judicial source told Arab News that Lebanese army intelligence was “following up on the case of the terrorist cell and we do not yet know whether any Lebanese individuals are involved.”

“This agency has requested Jordan to provide it with information regarding the investigations, to rely on the Lebanese investigations and in the event any Lebanese involvement is proven, the matter will then be referred to the Lebanese judiciary,” the person said.

In a parallel development, Lebanon’s army intelligence said it had arrested two Palestinians in the southern city of Sidon for “trading in and smuggling military weapons across the Lebanese-Syrian border and seized several weapons and military ammunition in their possession.”

The army command said the detainees were being investigated under the supervision of the judiciary.

Media reports said the pair were members of the security apparatus of the Hamas movement in Sidon.

No official security agency has confirmed a link between the arrests and the Jordanian cell.

The Jordan News Agency on Tuesday quoted intelligence officials as saying that “a series of plots targeting the country’s national security were thwarted and 16 individuals suspected of planning acts of chaos and sabotage were arrested.”

The plans involved the production of missiles using local materials and imported components. Explosives and firearms were discovered, along with a concealed missile that was ready for use, the report said.

The 16 suspects are thought to have been engaged in efforts to develop drones, recruit and train individuals domestically and send others abroad for further training.

According to the suspects’ statements, two members of the cell — Abdullah Hisham and Muath Al-Ghanem — were sent to Lebanon to coordinate with a prominent figure in the organization and receive training.

In December, the Lebanese army initiated a process to disarm Palestinian factions located outside Palestinian refugee camps. The factions were loyal to the former Syrian regime and mostly based in the Bekaa region along the border with Syria and the southern region.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam expressed Lebanon’s “full solidarity with Jordan in confronting schemes that threaten its security and stability” and its “readiness to cooperate with Jordanian authorities as necessary regarding information that some of those involved in these plots received training in Lebanon,” according to his media office.

At the launch of the Beirut Airport Road Rehabilitation Project, Salam said that security issues on the airport road were “being worked on with Defense Minister Michel Menassa and Interior Minister Ahmed Hajjar.”

In the past 48 hours, the Beirut Municipality has undertaken efforts to remove party flags and images of politicians and party leaders, particularly those associated with Hezbollah, from the streets of the capital.