{"id":47446,"date":"2017-10-14T06:21:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T06:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=47446"},"modified":"2017-10-14T06:21:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T06:21:50","slug":"jitters-kirkuk-iraqi-troop-movements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/jitters-kirkuk-iraqi-troop-movements.html","title":{"rendered":"Jitters in Kirkuk Over Iraqi Troop Movements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jitters in Kirkuk Over Iraqi Troop Movements<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Kurdish and Iraqi officials rushed Friday to calm fears of impending military action around the contested city of Kirkuk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Late Thursday, Iraqi media outlets began reporting Kurdish statements that Iraqi troops were massing for an attack on Kirkuk. Iraq\u2019s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said Friday on Twitter that the reports were \u201cfake news,\u201d writing, \u201cOur forces cannot and will not attack our citizens, whether Arab or Kurd.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kurdish officials continued to say on Friday that they were concerned about an Iraqi military buildup, but also said that they were withdrawing from certain areas to avoid conflict with Iraqi troops.<\/span><\/p>\n

The flurry of statements reflected the tensions surrounding the political showdown between Iraq\u2019s central government and Iraqi Kurds since the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq voted last month to seek independence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only troop movements that could be confirmed were the withdrawals of Kurdish forces from two small districts south of the city, a move that one Kurdish commander said was coordinated with the Iraqi military and allowed them to take over the vacated positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The commander, Brig. Gen. Rasool Kadir, said in a telephone interview from Kirkuk Province that the Kurdish withdrawal was made after discussions with Iraqi military commanders in the face of an Iraqi troop buildup.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to fight the Iraqi Army because political problems must be solved by dialogue,\u201d General Kadir said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jafar Shakhe Mustafa, the commander of Kurdish forces in the city of Kirkuk, said in a separate interview that the withdrawals were intended to avoid conflict with Iraqi forces, \u201cwho stood with us in fighting Daesh.\u201d The extremist group Islamic State is also known as Daesh, ISIS or ISIL.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Mr. Mustafa added, \u201cWe promise the people of Kirkuk that we will defend them until the last drop of our blood\u201d against any attack on the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, and Iraqi government troops are part of the American-led coalition that has driven Islamic State militants from most of the territory they seized in 2014 in northern and western Iraq. The United States has supported both forces with military trainers, advisers, Special Operations forces, airstrikes and artillery.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the coalition operation that evicted the militants from their last major urban stronghold in Iraq in the district of Hawija in Kirkuk Province on Oct. 5 narrowed the distance between pesh merga and Iraqi Army lines, raising tensions on both sides.<\/span><\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters in Washington on Friday that with American troops \u201cintegrated among these forces,\u201d he was concerned about an escalation to \u201ca shooting situation.\u201d But he said American forces were \u201cworking too, to make certain we keep any potential for conflict off the table.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Col. Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for the coalition in Baghdad, said American troops remained focused on advising and training Iraqi forces. He said the coalition sought to avoid distractions from the current operation to evict ISIS militants in Iraq from their remaining territory in western Anbar Province near the Syrian border.<\/span><\/p>\n

An official at the American Embassy in Baghdad urged all sides to avoid remarks or actions that might escalate tensions or distract from the fight against the Islamic State.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two districts abandoned by pesh merga troops are south of Kirkuk, Kurdish commanders said. Both districts, Taza and Beshir, are inhabited by Turkmens, a Shiite Muslim minority, who oppose control of the area by Kurds, who are Sunni.<\/span><\/p>\n

The districts are among several disputed areas in northern Iraq, including Kirkuk, seized by the pesh merga after Iraqi troops fled the 2014 assault by the Islamic State. The central government has demanded that the Kurdish regional government return all the territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baghdad seemed content on Friday to emphasize that the two sides managed to avoid armed conflict. The Iraqi military command said any movement by Iraqi forces on Friday was part of a clearing-and-stabilization operation after the successful battle for Hawija.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s interior minister, Kasim al-Araji, described \u201ca redeployment operation for federal forces after finishing the fight with Daesh in the sector.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A video distributed on social media on Friday showed an Iraqi soldier climbing a tower, removing a Kurdish flag and tossing it to the ground as other soldiers fired their weapons. The video said the incident was filmed in the Taza district.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hemin Hawrami, a spokesman for Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish region, said pesh merga forces in Kirkuk city had been reinforced by several thousand volunteers as part of a \u201crapid reaction plan\u201d in response to reports of a buildup of Iraqi forces outside the city. The presence of reinforcements could not be independently confirmed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDo not test our will,\u201d Mr. Hawrami said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Omar Arif, the federal police commander in Kirkuk, described the situation there on Friday as \u201cstable, with no problems.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/10\/13\/world\/middleeast\/iraq-kirkuk-kurds.html<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t