Thursday, July 19, 2007

 

KRG stations Peshmerga round Kirkuk

Security
(AINA) - The Kurdish regional government is to station thousands of its militiamen on the outskirts of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, according to region's deputy prime minister, Kusart Koran. Koran said the Kurdish government, which controls three provinces in the north, will deploy nearly 6,000 Kurdish militiamen, locally known as Peshmerga.
The move comes following devastating car bomb attacks in the city, most of them targeting offices of the two main Kurdish factions ruling the region. The Kurds want to add Kirkuk and its prolific oil fields to their enclave in the north despite regional concerns and opposition from certain ethnic groups in the city.
Koran said Kurdish militias will not be stationed inside the strife-torn city but will try to guard areas surrounding it. He said the militias' main task will be the protection of power pylons and oil pipelines which are scenes of repeated acts of sabotage.
COMMENT: Peshmerga are officially not meant to be policing within Kirkuk's city limits, however, unofficial sources reported several months ago that there were Peshmerga inside Kirkuk terrorising the other ethnic minorities such as the Arabs, Turkomen and Christians. The Turkomen said that if the violence continued they would raise their own militia. COMMENT ENDS.

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